Atterbury hosts aerial surveillance R&D

Photo By Sgt. Rob Cooper | Engineers John McNees (left) and Jerry Skinner prepare an Alpha 60 hobby plane for a test flight Monday, April 27, at Camp Atterbury, Ind. The test is part of the Army Research Lab's unmanned aircraft systems research and development, which is headquartered at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Atterbury played host to research operations for a week due to the post's large, restricted airspace and fair weather.  

EDINBURGH, UNITED STATES

05.07.2009

Courtesy Story

Camp Atterbury Indiana

EDINBURGH, Ind. — John McNees and his flight team finalized the pre-flight checks as he prepared for launch, steadying his headset and fine-tuning the aircraft controls at his fingertips. The plane's propeller whined to life and as it taxied the craft onto the runway. Within seconds, the plane spun around and began to accelerate down the tarmac.

McNees edged back on the joystick, rocketing the craft skyward and towards it destination. As the craft climbed to 2,000 feet, McNees eased off the plane's controls and called for his team on the ground to engage the autopilot. Satisfied that the launch had gone well, McNees turned around and walked back to his team a few feet away.

While his aircraft is nothing more than a modified radio-controlled hobby airplane and his cockpit consists of a patch of grass and a handheld remote control, McNees and his team of engineers are more than just R/C enthusiasts; as part of the Air Force Research Lab at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, it's the team's job to test and development the latest unmanned aerial surveillance and reconnaissance technology.

"Our job is to take surveillance, sensory and detection equipment and get it airborne," said McNees, a flight operations engineers with CESI, a company conducting research through the Wright Patterson lab. "We're using basic aircraft you can get from any hobby store and adding some of the latest air surveillance technology to it."

While the team's R&D projects take them around the country, McNees said that test flights this April brought them to Camp Atterbury, Ind., where the team took advantage of the restricted air space and moderately fair weather. During a weeklong operation at Atterbury, the team tested a number of R/C airplanes, each one fitted with air surveillance camera equipment as well as autopilot capabilities. The planes are designed to be launched via human piloting until it reaches a certain altitude, after which the autopilot is engaged from a small moving trailer retrofitted with everything from flight control systems to recording equipment.

"We call it the 'Taj Garaj,'" McNees said, showing off the modified trailer's features. The back half features a maintenance bay used for repairing and fitting the R/C planes with new equipment, while the front of the trailer serves as a fully-functional control room. There, CESI can track the aircraft's movements through GPS satellite, control the plane's camera surveillance systems and send flight coordinated to the autopilot.

Following the launch, McNees walked back to the control room and pointed towards a flat screen TV mounted to the wall, which showed live footage from the plane's camera. As the plane banked into a turn, team lab technician Jerry Stiller spotted a pair of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters preparing to take off.

"Watch this," Stiller said. With a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, the camera locked on to the helicopters and tracked their flight path away from the airfield.

"It's like a super spy in the sky," McNees said. "The system we are currently testing is designed to increase situational awareness, identify targets and even track them."

Getting to track and monitor moving targets coupled with Atterbury's expansive, restricted airspace and close proximity to Wright Patterson has been a huge benefit to the team's research, said flight engineer Ronald Dennis.

"Atterbury's active installation gives us the ability to really test our equipment's capabilities," he said. "It's also a pretty good size play box (to conduct operations). Besides that, everyone out here is so helpful and friendly. They treat us like any other pilot on the flight line."

While McNees and his team plan for more R&D operations at Atterbury in the near future, he said that one long term goal is to supplement mobilization training. "We are currently working with Camp Atterbury to establish training on [unmanned aerial vehicle] technology," he said. "It's our hope that we can show units preparing to deploy overseas how to take advantage of air surveillance."

In the meantime, however, CESI and its researchers will continue to keep their feet on the ground and their eyes in the skies. Literally.

• Date Taken: 05.07.2009
• Date Posted: 05.07.2009 14:12
• Story ID: 33327
• Location: EDINBURGH, US