model airplanes over Fallujah

'Scan Eagle' from Little Green Footballs
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

They Have Jihad, We Have ScanEagle

Here’s some of the amazing technology that helped us achieve a stunningly rapid, overwhelming victory in the hostile urban environment of Fallujah: Marines Aided by Robotic Airplane in Iraq.

ST. LOUIS - A robotic airplane called ScanEagle has done more than 1,000 hours of intelligence and reconnaissance work for the Marines in Iraq, its developers said.

It was developed and built by the St. Louis-based defense unit of Boeing Co. and the Washington-based Insitu Group.

Boeing officials said they could not comment on specific ScanEagle missions, but spoke generally of its use.

It travels above insurgent positions and sends real-time video images to Marines on the ground. The unmanned device can relay facial expressions on enemy soldiers, and can transmit in such detail that it shows steam rising from their coffee.

The 4-foot-long aircraft has a 10-foot wingspan and can fly up to 15 hours at a time on less than two gallons of fuel, Boeing officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041129/ap_on_sc/boeing_unmanned_aircraft_1

I modified some "Pelican" cases for Insitu. Basically cut panels out, drilled holes and such. PITB. However, I noticed a url on their drawing, and the town they're in (NE of Hood River, OR, on the WA side of the Columbia). Their website: http://www.insitugroup.net/ I'd kinda like to get a job for them, but it's about as windy an area as there is, in this neighborhood. Besides, they're all windsurfers and R/C glider guiders (not that either is a bad thing). Steve