Proxy Aviation, which focuses on optionally manned aircraft and system software that enables them to "swarm" and conduct persistent surveillance, is gearing up for two demonstrations that could help determine its future.
The company's recently appointed CEO, Patrick Moneymaker, says the company plans to demonstrate its persistent surveillance in a military demonstration next month. Next May, Proxy is slated to take part in Trident Specter 2010, a demonstration of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
"We're right on the cusp," says Moneymaker, who was at the 5th Biennial Unmanned Systems Demonstration at Webster Field, along with one of his company's SkyRaider aircraft. "We feel like this is really going to be the booster ignition that will take us into the market, big time."
Moneymaker - who has been on the job just under a year - says the SkyRaider uses an L-3 Wescam MX-15 non-gimbaled EO/IR sensor ball and Proxy's proprietary software to obtain a 3km surveillance radius at high resolution, which is continuously recorded. If an area of interest appears later, observers can backtrack to observe, for instance, a person installing an improvised explosive device and then backtrack further to see where that person came from. Proxy calls this its "Tivo in the sky."
The company also says its Virtual Pilot software easily enables the coordination of up to a dozen multiple unmanned aircraft; for Trident Spectre 2010 it plans to fly four.
Source: Flight Daily News