World Airnews - January 2010 - P750 XSTOL – Airborne surveillance platform - Mark Mansfield reports

WONDERBOOM, Pretoria- based Global Composite Solutions (GCS) has once again proved to be a market leader in the development and manufacture of specialised aircraft components in modern composite materials.

The company recently became the first to design a retractable mounting platform around the Zeiss Optronics LEO II system for use on a P750 XSTOL aircraft, previously known as the PAC750. In order to achieve this feat, GCS joined forces with two other market leaders namely, National Airways Corporation (NAC) which provided the aircraft, and Carl Zeiss Optronics which supplied the LEO-II-A5-EP airborne observation system and Trakka Beam searchlight.

This unique surveillance solution for the P750 XSTOL fixed-wing, single turboprop aircraft consists of a custom made surveillance cargo pod, designed and manufactured by GCS, with well known aviation personality, Chris Briers being part of the implementation and design team, as well as the test pilot. The P750 aircraft was chosen as a platform for the retractable airborne observation system and searchlight combination because of its ability to fly at very low airspeeds, as well as its long endurance and low operating costs. The aircraft can also be operated from almost any surface and location, which is an added “plus” for covert surveillance operations as well as border patrols and game counting.

The LEO-II-A5-EP (extended performance) is the same system that is used by many police air support units worldwide, including the South Africa’s Police Air Wing. The selected LEO-II-A5-EP configuration includes the latest generation 640x480 high resolution 8-9um focal plane array QWIP thermal imager with three fields of view; a 3-CCD daylight TV camera with a powerful zoom lens spatially matched to the thermal imager field of view; wide spectrum spotter TV camera with dual colour and black and white capability providing close-in image magnification (0.35° H); video auto tracker; searchlight slaving kits, and eye-safe laser pointer (an optional extra) which enhances the operational effectiveness by covert marking points of interest.

This sensor combination provides the operator with best picture performance under all operational conditions such as high altitude, long slant distance operation thereby enhancing safety and covert surveillance. Once tasked by NAC to develop the system, GCS produced a complete integrated prototype in less than four weeks and it is now undergoing flight testing.