## 2 UAS Platform Types and Characteristics
### Characteristics and Examples of UAS Categories
#### 2.2.4. MALE UAS  
Medium Altitude, Long-Endurance UAS platforms play a significant role in strategic operations in the defense community and are also seeing increased use within a few civil applications areas. An exemplary MALE platform in civilian use is the NASA Ikhana UAS, a Predator-B derivative platform operated in support of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science Division (Figure 8). The Ikhana was delivered to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) at Edwards Air Force Base in early 2007. The name Ikhana, a Native American Choctaw word meaning intelligent, conscience or aware, was considered descriptive of research goals NASA had established for the aircraft and its related systems at the time [10]. The Ikhana's 20 m wingspan can loft payloads of nearly 200 kg internally, as well as external loads of 900 kg. The aircraft is capable of reaching altitudes above 12,000 m, but with limited endurance at that altitude. The aircraft performance characteristics are optimized at 5,500 m to 9,000 m feet altitude, where the aircraft is capable of \(\sim\)24-hour mission endurance. The Ikhana UAS supported remote sensing data collection during its first campaign flights from 2007-2009. During the Western States UAS Fire Imaging Missions, the aircraft flew over 20 missions in the western United States over 60 fires, testing and developing imaging capabilities for wildfire transuration. The missions were supported by a partnership of NASA, the US Forest Service and  
Figure 7: LASE and LALE UAS on display at 2005 Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Air Demo. Pictured are (front to back, left to right) RQ-11A Raven, Evolution, Dragon Eye, NASA FLIC, Arcturus T-15, Skylark, Tern, RQ-2B Pioneer, and Neptune. Image Courtesy US Department of Defense. CALFIRE with a focus to develop the sensor and data communications capabilities to provide near-real-time wildfire information from a long-endurance UAS flying throughout extensive regions of the western US [10, 11, 12]. The missions, over a period of three fire seasons, showcased the utility of UAS to support both scientific data collection and disaster monitoring capabilities. By employing the satellite communications system (command and control (C&C)) link on the Ikhana as a distribution mechanism for delivery of data from the Autonomous Modular Sensor (AMS) aboard the Ikhana, the team was able to deliver near-real-time, geo-rectified imagery to incident management teams within 10-15 min of acquisition. This allowed an improved understanding of fire conditions by the incident teams to allow maximization of firefighting resources. Table 1 lists wildfire imaging support missions flown by Ikhana (and its predecessor, Altair) during the 2006-2009 fire seasons. While successful in demonstrating the capabilities of UAS for wildfire mapping and surveillance, these efforts were suspended in subsequent years and their future status is uncertain. The Ikhana was also the first civilian UAS to receive a Certificate of Airworthiness (COA; see below) to operate in the National Airspace System (NAS) without any chase aircraft or observers. The platform was granted extensive coverage of the western US in order to support disaster imaging over wildfire events, and was given unprecedented FAA COA support during the Southern California \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**Year** & **Aircraft** & **Flights** & **Hours** & **Fires Flown** \\ \hline
2006 & Altair & 4 & 68 & Mono Lake Prescribed Fire, Esperanza Fire (CA) \\  & & & & & Zaca, Tar, Colby, Babcock, Jackrabbit, Butler, North, Fairmont, Grouse, Lick, Bald, Moonlight, Zaca, SoCal Firestorm (CA); Trapper Ridge, Castle Rock (ID); WH (MT); Columbine, Hardscrabble, Granite Creek (WY); GW, Big Basin (OR); Domke Lake, South Omak (WA) \\
2008 & Ikhana & 4 & 21 & Piute, Clover, Silver, North Mountain, American River, Cub Complex, Canyon Complex, Basin, Gap, Camp, Cascatel, Hidden (CA) \\
2009 & Ikhana & 2 & 11 & Piute, Station Fire (CA; post-burn assessments) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}