AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, is expanding its fee-for-service unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) capabilities for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) customers, as well as civil and scientific organizations. Fee-for-Service model covers everything from systems to total life cycle support, training and in-field services. Contractor-owned, contractor-operated UAS services allow customers to secure just the data they require, even under a wide variety of operational conditions, without incurring the personnel cost or equipment, training and maintenance investment demanded by a UAS fleet.

Customers, including NASA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Colorado and Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organisation, have benefited from thousands of fee-for-service flight hours using AAI’s fleet of Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft systems. Most recently, the University of Colorado outfitted the Aerosonde Mark 4 aircraft with specialized instruments to capture extensive data on coastal winds in Antarctica. Despite heavy winds and temperatures as low as -38 degrees Celsius, four Aerosonde aircraft logged more than 130 flight hours and flew nearly 7,000 miles during their 16 flights. These aircraft also have proved their robust design amid desert sands, Arctic chill and dangerous, hurricane-force winds.