A demonstration is currently planned during June 00 in conjunction with a Navy Survival School advanced class exercise at Rangely, Maine. The MUDO-IPT will then conduct the flight operations during the CSAR exercise at Rangely. To develop experience with the UMAS, the Strike Small Drone Test Team flew a previously-certified Aerolight vehicle, which is used as a UAV trainer and light reconnaissance UAV by the Israeli Defense Forces. Once the UAV operators were comfortable with the UMAS in the Aerolight, an Exdrone was modified with the UMAS control system and flown with the new autopilot. Adjustments to the autopilot were accomplished in a mere two flights, demonstrating the capability of the UMAS to greatly accelerate the development and testing of custom-designed small UAVs.
Further testing is ongoing.
The electrically powered air vehicle has a nine foot wingspan and can remain airborne for up to 1 hour. Installed avionics include a gyro stabilized wing leveler, flight control system, GPS receiver, and nose mounted video camera. This flight was sponsored in part by Army Night Vision Laboratories and evaluated the quality of the imagery obtained by a lightweight, inexpensive IR sensor in identifying vehicles and personnel. The MUDO-IPT has conducted numerous flying qualities proficiency flights while verifying the load carrying capacity of the vehicle. Future plans include camera and IR sensor integration to support payload test and evaluation.