- SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing
Co. Thursday said it completed a successful test flight of a tiny new unmanned
plane designed to provide cheap military surveillance with no danger to
human life.
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- Launched by a pneumatic catapult, the four-foot-long
ScanEagle flew for 45 minutes Wednesday over a preset course in eastern
Oregon that took it as high as 1,500 feet.
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- The aircraft was built by a Boeing partner, Bingen, Washington-
based Insitu Group, which flew a similar plane across the Atlantic Ocean
in 1998 using just 1.5 gallons of gasoline.
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- Ground-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have
played an increasing role in recent military conflicts and could potentially
carry out a wide range of aerial surveillance tasks without risking pilots'
lives.
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- The ScanEagle takes the low-cost strategy a step further,
potentially lowering the cost to about $100,000 per plane from the multi-million-dollar
price tag on the current crop of larger UAVs, some of which are also designed
to carry weapons.
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