Argus One completes additional flight testing of control systems
World Surveillance Group Inc., a developer of lighter-than-air unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and related technologies, announced today that it has completed additional testing of its Argus One UAV in Easton, Maryland in preparation for the airship's flight testing and demonstration at the U.S. Army's proving ground facility in Yuma, Arizona.
The recent series of Argus One flight testing focused on improvements to the electronic control systems and the gas bag stability system as well as different engine and propeller configurations. The Company has also been able to evaluate the overall flight stability and maneuverability of the airship and its performance at various altitudes up to 2,500 feet in differing wind and weather conditions.
In preparation for the Argus One's testing at Yuma, WSGI has also built and tested redundant backup systems for the airship, including propulsion packages, onboard electronics and gas bag systems.
WSGI also announced today that it has decided to accelerate its integration of certain unique customer payloads into the pod bay of the Argus One UAV prior to its flight testing at Yuma. As a result, WSGI has agreed with the test directors at Yuma to reschedule the Company's test dates from July 11-22 to later in the third quarter of 2011. WSGI has focused on constructing a modular sensor bay on its airship that is capable of hosting various sensors and payloads with a simple plug and play architecture that provides power, an airship inertial navigation system and environmental data.
In part as a result of the continued successful flight testing of the Argus One in Easton, WSGI has received strong interest from potential partners to test and demonstrate the Argus One at Yuma as a mobile platform for specific suveillance and communications packages. WSGI is adjusting its testing program to accomodate such potential partnership relationships and has begun to prepare the Argus One airship to provide increased power and payload capacity to support the unique requirements of the specific sureveillance and communications packages.
Glenn D. Estrella, President and CEO of WSGI, stated "We are extremely excited by the potential of the Argus One airship being used as a mobile surveillance and communications platform. We believe adjusting our testing and demonstration schedule of the Argus One so that the airship can include specific payload packages when it flies at Yuma is a critical step towards commercialization of our Argus One UAV."
Michael K. Clark, WSGI's Chairman, added, "We have been provided with important opportunities to pursue potential partnership relationships to further the development and commercialization of our airships and we intend to take full advantage of such opportunities to move our Company forward in the interests of all of our shareholders. We look forward to demonstrating the capabilities of our Argus One UAV at Yuma in the near future."
Source: World Surveillance Group
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