Aviation Instrument Technologies was awarded a contract by the NASA Global Hawk Project, Dryden Flight Research Center to provide lightning strike detection equipment kits to be installed in one of the four NASA Global Hawks.
The kits contain equipment for installation in both the Aircraft and the Global Hawk ground station. Equipment installed in the air vehicle detects lightning strikes and encodes that data for transmission to the ground station. Equipment installed in the ground station decodes the information and presents lightning strikes on a colour moving map display for the Global Hawk pilots. For the first time, Global Hawk pilots will have this vital information to avoid dangerous convective activity and thunderstorms.
The Global Hawk is the biggest and most sophisticated UAV in the world. It has a range of more than 11,000NM, endurance of 30 hours and operating altitudes as high as 60,000ft. Lightning strike information is critical for some of NASA’s upcoming planned science missions over hurricanes this season. Storm cells in these Atlantic and Gulf hurricanes can build above 60,000ft in severe conditions. Flying at 60,000ft, the Global Hawk is in a critical flight regime and must avoid turbulence associated with convective activity and lightning strikes. In these extreme conditions, Aviation Instrument Technologies kits give NASA the edge in mission success and aircraft survival.
Aviation Instrument Technologies is a world leader in the design, development and production of custom instruments, control panels and displays for military, commercial and industrial applications.
For further information please contact David Teichman on +1 813 783 3361.