Pipistrel’s Unmanned Surveyor Full-Scale Airplane Militarized

As reported by The Warzone at Thedrive.com, Pipistrel’s militarized unmanned Surveyor has been used by the U.S. military operationally.  Various companies market these designs to promote how quiet they are, as does Pipistrel with the Surveyor, a modified general aviation aircraft equipped to fly autonomously with sophisticated navigation electronics and sensors.  New details about the Long Endurance Aircraft Program have come to light after an unmanned plane derived from the Pipistrel Sinus powered glider crashed at Erbil International Airport in Iraq last year.  Drones, of course, come in a variety of shapes and sizes ranging from relatively small hand-launched designs to as large as a modern passenger jet.  “Information about these drones is trickling out and, with the public acknowledgement of the loss of one of these discreet drones in Iraq last year, perhaps more details about how they have been employed will now begin to emerge.”