First Atlantic Crossing By a Drone

[PatR]

Having been associated with the people that performed this momentous feat and stumbling across the article I thought it might be interesting to see where some of what we do shared an origination. One person was not mentioned in the initial part of the article: Kip Jackson. Kip was the tecnician that made much of it happen as without his RC experience, knowledge and inventive creativity much of what was needed would not have been found and adapted to work as needed. I can say that today Kip is happily retired and still coming up with new ideas and ways to do some pretty neat stuff. Tad and Andy are still hard at work.

The First Atlantic Crossing By Drone

On August 20th the Aerosonde Laima lifted off from Bell Island, Newfoundland and landed in a meadow in South Uist, Scotland after 26 hours and 45 minutes in the air! This was accomplished without a…

www.suasnews.com

 

[Ty Pilot]

It's funny, as I was reading that title I was thinking 'wait a minute, this was done in the late nineties'. I remember AMA President Dave Brown bragging about how he was part of this historic flight in his monthly article in the AMA magazine at the end of which he said that it could not be duplicated because that was the point at which the rules began to change and flying BVLOS was now verboten.

 

[PatR]

Any part Brown had in this was limited to someone buying a common part from his company’s product list...

There was another group that did similar a little later with an RC model that D.B. might have had more association with.

 

[AH-1G]

Now we know the "Rest of the Story", ahhh "Real Story".?

 

[Ty Pilot]

Yeah, Dave's part in that was a little suspect if you ask me. Like I was part of the Apollo 11 program since I watched it on live TV

 

[PatR]

Now we know the "Rest of the Story", ahhh "Real Story".[emoji848]

Almost. The rest of the story has the platform being created as a “green machine” to be used for weather observations and spotting tuna while trying to prevent dolphins being killed while catching tuna under the name Aerosonde. The plan was to market it to international fishing operations as it could be launched and recovered on a medium sized fishing boat.

Our gov got wind of that and immediately quashed the idea as export of UAV technology was controlled by ITAR regulations. At the time the only place they could sell it was to our military organizations or those associated with a friendly foreign government, which turned out to be quite beneficial to people a little north of us. As both Tad and Andy were very “anti war” the platform almost died then and there but an investment group stepped in and made an offer that could not be refused. It ultimately made all three of the founders millionaires many times over. Thus the Scan Eagle was born under the Insitu banner.

As employee 154 I got to watch as it turned into a company that now employs well over a thousand people. Lotta work but a whole lotta fun.

 

[AH-1G]

I'm sure you got a % or bonus for your effort.?

 

[PatR]

I can neither confirm nor deny such information. As I was never home and had direct deposit you’d have to ask her...

 

[Phaedrus]

Any part Brown had in this was limited to someone buying a common part from his company’s product list...

There was another group that did similar a little later with an RC model that D.B. might have had more association with.

Maynard Hill. 2003

Model Plane Flies the Atlantic

When Maynard Hill decided he wanted to fly a model airplane across the Atlantic Ocean, no one took him seriously.

www.sciencenewsforstudents.org

 

[Phaedrus]

Yeah, Dave's part in that was a little suspect if you ask me. Like I was part of the Apollo 11 program since I watched it on live TV

I read "The Right Stuff" and even saw the movie. Doesn't make me an astronaut. DB thinks it would.

 

[PatR]

Maynard Hill. 2003

Model Plane Flies the Atlantic

When Maynard Hill decided he wanted to fly a model airplane across the Atlantic Ocean, no one took him seriously.

www.sciencenewsforstudents.org

That’s the guy. Him and the AMA went way out to call it the first crossing with an RC plane. His was little more than a recreation of the first as Tad’s plane was pretty much RC in everything but the auto pilot. The engine was an Enya 1.20 converted to gas and most all the other stuff was COTS RC components.

Looking back, anyone with a half arsed GPS auto pilot could have done it too had they set the lost comm home point in Scotland. But they would have needed to do some serious thinking first.