Insitu has donated its ScanEagle drone to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. N202SE is the first unmanned aircraft to perform an FAA-approved commercial beyond visual line of sight flight in the National Airspace System.
The aircraft made its first commercial flight off the fishing vessel Westward Wind to survey ice floes over the Chuckchi Sea off the northern Alaska coast in 2013 and later conducted track inspection for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway between Belin and Clovis, New Mexico. The operations were in support of the FAA's Pathfinder initiative to explore the next steps in unmanned aircraft operations.
“At a time when the unmanned aviation industry is advancing faster than ever, we take great pride in the pioneering work Insitu has done to help shape this path,” said CEO Ryan Hartman. Based in Bergen, Washington, Insitu is an international company that creates and supports unmanned systems and software for industry, government, and defense.