Patent ID: 7262395

Claim:
An expendable flight kit attachable to a sonobuoy for making use of said sonobuoy as a central structural load-bearing component of a flying assembly, the kit comprising connecting structure configured to connect the flying assembly to the sonobuoy such that the sonobuoy is the central load-bearing component of the flying assembly; rigid aerodynamic flight surfaces configured to provide lift and stability to the flying assembly; a flight propulsion system; a plurality of flight control surfaces; a plurality of control surface actuators operable for moving the flight control surfaces in response to control signals; and a flight control system including (i) a GPS receiver and (ii) attitude and airspeed sensors, the flight control system being operable for receiving mission parameters including deployment co-ordinates, the flight control system being operable for autonomously navigating and steering the vehicle in flight using information from the GPS receiver and the attitude and airspeed sensors, the fight control system being operable for sending control signals to control the control surface actuators, the flying assembly operable to be launched from a ship; the flight control system being operable for separating the sonobuoy from the flight kit while in flight, the flight control system causing (i) said connecting structure to open such that the sonobuoy is removed from said flight kit, and (ii) two of said rigid aerodynamic flight surfaces to move toward each other about an axis therebetween, wherein after separation of the sonobuoy from the flight kit, both the sonobuoy and the flight kit are configured to fall into the water.