Flight Landata Dual-Swath BuckEye Imaging System

Flight Landata (MA, USA) has introduced dual-swath electro-optical (EO) capability to the BuckEye aerial imaging system. The Dual-Swath BuckEye EO system collects twice as much ultra-high-resolution imagery in a single flight line, providing greater efficiency in data collection and processing.

The EO portion of the BuckEye is a light-weight imaging system that can be flown aboard fixed wing, rotor wing, and UAV aircraft to acquire large-format natural-color imagery with centimeter-level resolution. Since 2007, Flight Landata has been flying the BuckEye aerial imaging system under contract to the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (Army TEC) to acquire ultra-high resolution imagery for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and mapping activities on behalf of U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By doubling the swath width of every image scene, Flight Landata has tailored the Dual Swath system to be safer and more efficient especially in ISR-related missions collecting high-resolution georeferenced images of point targets and lines of communication with one collection pass. Larger collection areas per flight line mean the aircraft is in the air for shorter periods during acquisition or it can cover a greater area in a given time. In addition, image processing is faster because there are fewer flight lines to fuse during mosaicking and orthorectification.

Earlier this month, Army TEC extended the Flight Landata contract for another year of BuckEye operations in Afghanistan. Applications of BuckEye imagery in war zones have included photogrammetric mapping, change detection, and 3D terrain mapping.