Honeywell’s MAV system has been field-tested by the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. It has flown more than 3,500 test flights over the past three years. The U.S. Infantry, through both the Future Combat System (FCS) and the work Honeywell has done through their ACTD, is looking to deploy the current GMAV with some improvements, and also further elaborate on the ducted-fan capabilities with their FCS Class 1 vehicle.

The MAV conducted its first successful international test flight in Bourges, France on March 28 of last year. It also participated in a successful hostage rescue scenario last May. “We have demonstrated both to the UK and France and other NATO countries where this technology can be exported,” said Fulton. “We have plans with NATO allies, and we’ve sold a system to the Miami-Dade Police Department. We have both military and civil customers. We expect multiple deployments with various components of the U.S. military, and 2008 will bring several more deployments of GMAV,” he said.

The Miami-Dade Police Department is the first entry into the civilian law enforcement market. The Miami-Dade Police Department and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are working together in an experiment to lay the ground work for how these systems can be used in the national airspace. “That’s the real key,” said Fulton. “The military flies in restricted airspace, and through this activity, we’ll be flying MAV in the national airspace. They will be looking at how a system like this could be employed by police departments and still maintain the integrity of the system that the FAA has put together to keep manned flight in the national airspace safe. It’s a very exciting opportunity for Honeywell, and one that will lay the ground work for how other police departments will employ systems like this.”

Fulton attributes the success of the MAV program to the advent of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, coupled with the lineage of Honeywell flight controls. “The interesting thing is that ducted-fan technology has been around a long time — you can go back and find ducted-fan systems being flown in various configurations in the early 1950s,” he explained. “Previously, without the processors to run very complicated flight controls, the systems were just not viable. Now, being able to bring those two disparate pieces of technology together into a small package is what made it a success.”

The future MAV will integrate additional sensors including a gimbaled sensor. “We are now flight-testing our new gimbal sensor for the platform, which brings another level of sophistication and detail to the type of situational awareness data that you can get from a platform like this,” said Fulton.

For more information on Honeywell’s Micro Air Vehicles, click here.