Mantis flies!

[GOOSE]

From FlightGlobal -

BAE Systems has conducted the first few flights of its Mantis unmanned air vehicle under a technology demonstration effort jointly funded by the UK Ministry of Defence.

Performed at the Woomera test range in South Australia, the flights have seen the fully autonomous design "successfully complete a series of trials demonstrating the capability of the system and the potential of large unmanned systems to support future UK operational needs", says BAE.

The work has also "helped build confidence in the feasibility of a UK-derived medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system," says Air Vice Marshal Simon Bollom, director combat air for the MoD's Defence Equipment & Support organisation.

More and a picture from FlightGlobal here - http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ights.html

[RichC]

Nice to see it coming along... pretty big too

More here with some pics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Mantis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and

http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/ph ... is-uav.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;