A Dropsonde Glider with Adaptive Trajectory Planning

Dropsondes are one of the primary atmospheric measurement tools available to researchers. Current dropsondes are deployed with a free fall parachute trajectory, allowing no flight path control and requiring the deployment aircraft to fly close to the target. Adding a guided range capability to the dropsonde will allow much greater mission flexibility and operation in hazardous environments such as volcanic plumes. Barron Associates, Inc. will accomplish this through a scaled down version of a glide-kit harness currently being developed for use with sonobuoys. In addition, a suite of trajectory generation algorithms will be developed to facilitate controlled flight through areas of interest, along with the guidance and control routines to track the desired trajectory. The solution will be compatible with all existing dispensing systems, including the P-3 and the Global Hawk, and will address airspace utilization, materials and manufacturing concerns and cost. The Phase I effort will include prototype manufacture and piloted flight tests.