Tropical cyclone meteorological data from the atlantic main development region (MDR) is difficult to collect due to the remoteness of the location and difficulty of deploying manned aircraft to the…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded Dragoon Technology LLC $599,555.33 under the Small Business Innovation Research Program to develop a lightweight, long endurance unmanned aircraft system for tropical cyclone meteorological data collection. The SBIR program seeks to stimulate technological innovation through small business partnerships to meet federal research needs.

Specifically, Dragoon will develop a sub-30 pound unmanned aircraft with over 24 hours of flight endurance using their internally-developed hybrid electric propulsion and integrated avionics. Phase I involves demonstrating long duration data collection using an existing demonstration aircraft to show feasibility. This will address the difficulty of collecting meteorological data from the remote Atlantic Main Development Region where many tropical disturbances form before becoming hurricanes. Near on-demand data collection could improve hurricane prediction and tasking of manned assets for higher fidelity observation.

Tropical cyclone meteorological data from the atlantic main development region (MDR) is difficult to collect due to the remoteness of the location and difficulty of deploying manned aircraft to the region. Data collection is frequent upon development of a major hurricane but many tropical disturbances in the MDR leading up to hurricane development are of interest. Being able to collect meteorological data nearly on-demand could be of great benefit, both in predicting hurricane formation and in tasking manned assets for higher fidelity data collection. Dragoon proposes that a lightweight (sub-30 LBS), disposable, long endurance (more than 24 HRS) small UAS be developed for tropical cyclone meteorological data collection. The platform will utilize dragoons internally developed hybrid electric propulsion system and integrated avionics package. Phase i will involve a demonstration of a long duration data collection flight using an existing demonstration aircraft. The flight will show feas