WASHINGTON, March 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon
Company (NYSE: RTN) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration received Aviation Week magazine's prestigious
Laureate award for using the Raytheon Coyote® unmanned aerial
vehicle to provide near-real-time, potentially life-saving data
during hurricanes.
Developed for the military, Coyote is a small, expendable UAV
that's air- or ground-launched into environments too dangerous for
manned aircraft. The system can fly for more than an hour and up to
50 miles from its host aircraft.
"Weather forecasters are able to better understand storm
behavior and improve hurricane models based on the real-time
information provided by our Coyotes," said Dr. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon vice president of
Advanced Missile Systems. "Coyote UAVs are collecting and
delivering robust storm data that could ultimately save lives."
Last year, NOAA researchers deployed six Coyote UAVs to track
and model Hurricane Maria. Launched from a NOAA WP-3D Orion
hurricane hunter aircraft, the Coyotes flew directly into the
storm, giving researchers an unprecedented view of Maria.
Traditional weather instruments are dropped from planes and
capture only a snapshot of storm behavior, but Coyote's winged
design allowed it to linger and return to key areas of a hurricane
to gather more data and transmit it near-real-time to
researchers.
"We think unmanned technologies that explore dangerous and
difficult to observe regions of the storm may improve our physical
understanding, provide enhanced situational awareness and might
ultimately improve the accuracy of hurricane intensity
forecasts in the future," said Dr. Joseph
Cione, a hurricane researcher at NOAA's Atlantic
Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and principal
investigator of NOAA's Coyote project. "The Coyotes we deployed in
Hurricane Maria collected critical, continuous observations in the
lower part of the hurricane, an area impossible to reach with
manned aircraft."
The Coyote UAV was first deployed in 2014, when NOAA launched four of the systems into
Hurricane Edouard, a Category 3 storm. Scientists on board
the aircraft collected meteorological data in both the
eye of the storm and the surrounding eye wall.
About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2017 sales of
$25 billion and 64,000 employees, is
a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil
government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of
innovation spanning 96 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art
electronics, mission systems integration, C5I™ products and
services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in
more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on
Twitter.
www.raytheon.com
Media Contacts
Cecelia
Fresh
+1.520.746.2281
rmspr@raytheon.com
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SOURCE Raytheon Company