October 23, 2006
Production Ready
Miraterre is proud to announce the final production prototype phase of our 13” Dragon Slayer UAV. Intended primarily for military applications requiring extremely low visibility and rapid deployment, the Dragon Slayer can go from its storage case to the air in under 1 minute. With nearly unlimited in-flight programming ability, a 35 minute endurance, 3 mile range, and over 90 mph maximum sustained cruise speed, the Slayer can search large or distant sites with great efficiency. A loiter speed of 40 mph allows the operator to examine remote locations with smooth high-quality live video.
March 31, 2006
Full square mile field survey
Miraterre Flight Systems is proud to announce the first demonstration of a large area field survey by a micro UAV. The 33cm (13") wingspan Dragon Slayer performed a complete video survey of 1 square mile of land near Tucson, Arizona.
Filming a 120m (394') wide path, the plane made a total of 17 passes, each a mile in length and separated by 100m (328 ft), for a total linear distance of 36km (22.4 miles) including turnarounds and landing. Average airspeed was 70.5 kph (44 mph) at an altitude of 900m (2952 ft) above sea level (100m AGL). Average wind speed was 14.4 kph (9 mph) from the west.
Below are photos and screenshots from the ground station taken at various intervals during the flight. Click on each image for a larger version.
Launch!
26 seconds after launch, heading north toward the first turn.
Altitude: 94 meters (308 ft)
Ground Speed: 68.4 kph (42.5 mph)
15:38 minutes into the flight. Completed the first 9 passes and turnaround.
Altitude: 96 meters (315 ft)
Ground Speed: 59.4 kph (36.9 mph)
30:55 minutes. Landing at the designated site
Onboard video of the first leg (16 meg)
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