The DataBird is a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) enabling users to recover their weather-balloon instrumentation and data easily and reliably. The DataBird aircraft are light-weight mini-gliders, designed to carry a payload, such as a radio-sonde, and launched via a weather-balloon. Upon release from the balloon, the GPS based guidance system flies it back to the launch site or an alternative landing location. It comes with payload brackets for most popular brands of radio-sonde equipment. Alternatively, the general purpose payload can be tailored to suit.

Features

• Light weight, robust pod with modular payload system
• Out-of-the-box and ready to launch in under 5 minutes, by a single operator
• Does not require a ground-station
• Can carry payloads up to 330 g (11 oz)
• Maximum altitude of approximately 35 km (115,000 ft)
• Normally lands within 100 metres (330 ft) from target location
• Smart 'on-the-fly' landing site selection
• Out-of-range release condition ensures it return
  
• Altitude and Timer programmable release conditions
• Allows for 39 alternative landing site
• Allows the user to create flight paths
• 5 channel sensor data logger
• Analog / digial interface to payload sensors
  

• Flight-path logging
  
• Event and diagnostics logging
  
• Configuration of no-fly-zones

Typical Applications

• Returning expensive or custom-made equipment
• Collection of large volumes of data, too much to be transmitted via radio. eg, aerial photography
• Reducing instrumentation setup and calibration costs,
• Enables increased atmospheric sampling on the same budget