The Sea Scout, featured at this year's Navy Opportunity Forum, is the first successful auto-piloted seaplane, according to Oregon Iron Works, the Portland, Ore.-based company that devised it. The canary yellow unmanned craft, which weighs in at 350 pounds and can carry 35 pounds of payload, has successfully taken off and landed on water surfaces.
Constructed from composite aluminum, the Sea Scout has a wingspan of 17 feet. But, in the interest of taking up less space on a ship's deck, it is designed to be stored in a standard-size shipping container. It also houses onboard sensors that can measure altitude and wave data to aid in takeoff and landing. It is currently in its flight test phase in Texas and is expected to go into production at the end of 2008.
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