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BirdEye 500 mini UAV aimed provides real time
airborne surveillance, reconnaissance and over the hill
intelligence for forward units at battalion level and below. The
system is equipped with a gimbaled payload, which provides sharp
pictures at a range of several hundred meters, as required for
close range operations.
The
aircraft’s takeoff weight is 5 Kg, wingspan is 2 meters and its
length is 1.5 meters. A system is comprised of three electrically
powered unmanned aircraft and a portable Ground Control Station
(GCS). The back packable system is carried in two backpacks and
can be operated by a crew of two soldiers. The system can be
assembled and ready for its mission within a few minutes.
Operation is simple, no special skills are needed and training
time is short. After a quick assembly in the filed, Spy There can
operate on a 60 minute mission, flying autonomously toward a
designated waypoint assigned by the mission control system. The
system can operate at a range of 10 Km.
Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI)
recently unveiled a new family of miniature UAVs designed for
military, paramilitary, security and civilian applications. The
family comprises the Bird-Eye 100 and
Bird-Eye 500 low cost miniature UAV
weighing 1.3 and 5 kg respectively. Both MAVs are designed for
operation at a very low altitude, and are launched by hand or
bungee. Both unmanned aircraft went through a series of tests
recently. Bird-Eye went through a thorough evaluation by the
Israel defense Forces, while Bird-Eye 500 was demonstrated in the
Netherlands, to the local police. Flight demonstrations in the
Netherlands were carried out by Condor UAV B.V, IAI's newly
assigned European distributor for miniature UAVs. During the
flight demonstrations the UAVs were operated over farmland area on
highway and monitoring and fire watch missions, which also
provided introduction and orientation prior to safety approvals
required for the final phase - flying over the Amsterdam
metropolitan area, within the Control Tower Region (CTR) airspace
controlled by the Schipoll airport.
The IAI team demonstrated the system's
silent operation, its ability to operate in high winds, and the
minimal logistic footprint required for its operation. Using a
high resolution gimbaled color camera, and flying dedicated flight
patterns using an autonomous auto-pilot system, Bird-Eye 500
equipped with a typical gimbaled 850gr optical payload was flying
at a speed of 25 - 45 knots, at an altitude of 500 feet above the
ground, enduring strong winds. The mission included the monitoring
of rail tracks in the vicinity of the Amsterdam central train
station, mobile vehicle tracking, crowd control, waterway
monitoring, and other missions performed to the complete
satisfaction of the Amsterdam police. The performance of the MAV
were compared to performance of manned aircraft and were reported
as superior in all aspects. Chief-Commissioner of the Amsterdam
Police, who attended the demonstration said that the police is
interested in the new technology and see the opportunities to use
mini UAVs in their police work. Condor UAV B.V., the Haarlem based
Netherlands’ distributor of IAI/MALAT’s Mini-UAVs for civilian
applications will be responsible for the marketing and customer
support in several European countries. |
