North Andover, Mass., USA, 28 October 2008 – Flight Landata today officially introduced dual-swath electro-optical (EO) capability to the BuckEye aerial imaging system at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation GEOINT Symposium in Nashville. The Dual-Swath BuckEye EO system collects twice as much ultra-high-resolution imagery in a single flight line, providing greater efficiency in data collection and processing.
Flight Landata is exhibiting BuckEye imagery and capabilities in Booth 1071 at the GEOINT Symposium being held Oct. 27-30, 2008, at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville.
The EO portion of the BuckEye is a light-weight imaging system that can be flown aboard fixed wing, rotor wing, and UAV aircraft to acquire large-format natural-color imagery with centimeter-level resolution. Since 2007, Flight Landata has been flying the BuckEye aerial imaging system under contract to the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (Army TEC) to acquire ultra-high resolution imagery for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and mapping activities on behalf of U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The new Dual-Swath configuration of BuckEye provides a 78-megapixel imaging capability with centimeter-level spatial resolution,” said Flight Landata President, Tom Harris. “The width of the swath and spatial resolution both vary with the altitude of the aircraft.”
By doubling the swath width of every image scene, Flight Landata has tailored the Dual Swath system to be safer and more efficient especially in ISR-related missions collecting high-resolution georeferenced images of point targets and lines of communication with one collection pass. Larger collection areas per flight line mean the aircraft is in the air for shorter periods during acquisition or it can cover a greater area in a given time. In addition, image processing is faster because there are fewer flight lines to fuse during mosaicking and orthorectification.
Development of the Dual-Swath BuckEye EO represents another investment made by Flight Landata into the continued improvement of the system. Building on the BuckEye’s unique combination of mission-tested sensors, and combat-proven flight experience, Flight Landata has also invested in developing and purchasing additional aerial imaging assets. The company is ready to deploy imaging systems and aircraft anywhere in the world on short notice.
Earlier this month, Army TEC extended the Flight Landata contract for another year of BuckEye operations in Afghanistan. Applications of BuckEye imagery in war zones have included photogrammetric mapping, change detection, and 3D terrain mapping.
About Flight LandataHeadquartered in North Andover, Mass., Flight Landata has been building, integrating and operating ultra-high-resolution aerial imaging systems for mapping and ISR applications since 1991. The privately held company leveraged its patented imaging technology to develop the Flight Landata BuckEye system in cooperation with the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC) for combat deployment. The BuckEye system, additional sensor systems, contract aerial collection services, and image processing capabilities are offered by Flight Landata as professionally managed turn-key operations. Visit www.flightlandata.com.