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Frontiers September 2016 Issue

Octopus Insitu’s innovative multi-copter provides more options for the unmanned ScanEagle BY DAN RALEY | PHOTOS BY BOB FERGUSON he device resembles an octopus, with mechanical tentacles reaching in all T directions, wrapping up others when necessary. Yet flares—or Flying Launch and Recovery System—was meant for the sky rather than the sea. It’s the latest innovation in the rapidly evolving world of unmanned aerial systems, or UAS. Built by Boeing subsidiary Insitu in Bingen, Wash., flares is an autonomous multi-copter that complements the ScanEagle, the company’s flagship and original unmanned aircraft, by dispatching it and catching it in flight. “When we first started, it had never been done before—dropping a UAS from a UAS,” Insitu flight-test Photo: Insitu’s flares, or Flying Launch and Recovery System, is a multi-copter that carries another unmanned aerial system, ScanEagle, before releasing it into flight. flares also can capture ScanEagle at the end of its flight. SEPTEMBER 2016 | 33


Frontiers September 2016 Issue
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