Major break through for Diamond Airborne Sensing

16 January 2009, 11:04am

The UK's Royal Air Force is conducting surveillance operations with Airborne Sensing’s DA42MPP in the UK and other parts of the world.

The Austrian produced DA42MPP is a modern composite low maintenance aircraft, powered by two turbocharged JETA1 fuel engines, with a total fuel flow of 4,4 US GAL per hour.

On the aircraft side, the de-icing option to fly in known icing conditions, the oxygen system to go up to 18.000ft, the Traffic Advisory System to avoid near misses, and the passive surveillance kit, lowering the noise, the thermal signature and the daylight recognition to a stealth level, allows to operate the platform in all possible flight and weather conditions.

The platform with its endurance of up to 13 hours, when loitering over the target area and a range of about 1.200NM is the perfect long endurance surveillance tool for any kind of observation mission like homeland security, surveillance, border control and costal surveillance.

The Multi Purpose Platform carries a gyro-stabilized daylight and thermal video camera, like the MX15i from L3 Wescam, the Star Safire III from Flir or the Polytech’s Ultra Force 350, a line-of-sight downlink system for high quality transfers with a range of more than 100NM and other radios like UHF or a VHF and even military radios.

Since the platforms started transmitting crystal clear stable pictures each flew more than 1000hrs in less than four months without any problems. The all weather capabilities turned out to be an important factor.

Diamond Airborne Sensing expects a follow-up order for 2009 of six more complete surveillance systems.

Diamond AIrborne Sensing

Geo: International