Insitu: The Genesis of Unmanned Aerial Systems
In 1998, the creators of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched their drone from the roof of a car off Newfoundland, Canada, sending it across the Atlantic Ocean, where it landed less than 27 hours later in a meadow in Scotland. They knew they were making history. The Aerosonde was the first UAV to cross the Atlantic—on less than two gallons of gas.
A collaboration of a few scientists and engineers from Insitu Group in Washington state, the University of Washington, and Environmental Systems and Services of Melbourne, Australia, the Aerosonde was much more nimble and innovative than other UAVs being developed at the time: it was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and weighed only about 50 pounds.
Steve Sliwa, Insitu’s CEO from 2001 to 2008, cites the Atlantic crossing as an event that captured media attention and—along with company innovation and Small Business Research and Innovation (SBIR) grants—moved Insitu from a garage-shop operation in Bingen, Washington, to the leader in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that it is today.
An important element of work done through an SBIR grant the company received in 1996 was the development of a simulator that allowed for rapid testing and evolution of the technology Insitu was deploying. At the time, the SBIR was focused on developing a UAV for environmental monitoring and weather sensing, but the simulator also proved to be very valuable in future projects, “One of the key aspects of our technology was that we would design, build, test, and then redesign, build, test—a rapid iteration loop—and that was really important,” remembers Sliwa. “That process was used to develop SeaScan, Insitu’s next venture, which was an entirely new approach to UAVs, We’d have failures—some crashes and things like that,” Sliwa remembers. “We’d go back and analyze all the data and test out ideas on the simulator, and then design, build, test, again. We did that as fast as we could. “The company wouldn’t have survived without the SBIRs, and the technology that we delivered during that time was the foundation for growing the company,” Sliwa says.
SeaScan was developed primarily with the fishing industry in mind; however, September 11, 2001, changed the focus of the country and the company. Insitu pivoted to military applications, securing a joint-technology development contract with the nearby Boeing Company. Venture capital followed, and in 2004 the company deployed its ScanEagle (a direct descendant of SeaScan) with the U.S. Marine Corps for the first time.
Sliwa reports that the head of operations at the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq, told him that he would have had 30 percent more casualties if they hadn’t deployed ScanEagle. The talent of the Insitu team did not go unnoticed. After a few years of working jointly on contracts, The Boeing Company acquired Insitu in 2008 and it became an independent subsidiary. Insitu now provides the ScanEagle or UAV flight hours to all branches of the military in 20 foreign countries, as well as to the commercial sector.
From five employees in 2001 to more than 1,400 today, Insitu grew with surprising speed. The company continued to make history: in 2009 its ScanEagle was used in the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, who was captured by pirates off the Somalia coast; in 2013 it became the first company to conduct beyond visual line of sight flight; and in 2017 it celebrated one million hours of flight. Today it has locations in the U.S, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Current CEO Ryan Hartman attributes Insitu’s impressive military sales to the company’s technological advances in payload, imagery enhancement, and dissemination techniques that “enable our customers to make even more informed decisions that protect and save lives.” The RQ-21A Blackjack and Integrator UAS were added to the company’s offerings in the last few years, providing more payload capacity and flexibility in capturing information. “A typical Insitu UAS today includes four air vehicles or AVs, a ground control station, remote video terminal, Insitu’s patented launch system, and its unique, patented SkyHook recovery system,” Hartman explains. “Systems can vary and are uniquely designed to meet a customer’s needs.”
Today, Insitu is experiencing growing demand for the surveillance capabilities of its UAS in the defense, government and commercial sectors. A large part of Insitu’s commercial footprint is in providing ScanEagle flight hours. It is helping customers detect and monitor oil spills, ensure safe railways, fight wildfires, monitor marine mammal populations, pinpoint seafaring drug smuggling operations, and provide search and rescue.
Hartman describes the commercial potential as a “tremendous opportunity,” adding, “several years ago, I would have predicted that the explosion of new UAS companies was already behind us, but history has proven me wrong. The growing emergence of the commercial market and consumer markets has been the catalyst for another massive expansion in the number of companies offering some sort of commercial product.” Hartman notes that with growth there also is momentum for the industry to “put in place the regulations and laws that will enable the expansion and use of unmanned systems within the United States.” One example of Insitu’s continuing innovation is found in INEXA Solutions, a suite of aerial remote sensing professionals and UAS, payloads and services,—including INEXA Cloud—to collect, process, analyze, and share large amounts of data globally for a variety of customers
Insitu still has its main headquarters in Bingen, which has gone from a region of high unemployment, to being an economic hub. In addition, the original garage that harbored its first creation has morphed into an eight-building campus in Bingen with operations on three continents. The company places emphasis on community, encouraging employees to engage in their communities as volunteers in civic organizations, support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educational opportunities, and act as good stewards of the land, Hartman says.
Hartman attributes Insitu’s one-million-flight-hours milestone, reached in late July 2017, to “the professionalism and dedication of every single employee at Insitu,” adding, “every employee from every corner of the company contributed to Insitu reaching this milestone. I am tremendously proud of where we have come, and look forward to all that we will do together in providing world-class service to our customers.”
For any questions on the Video One Sheet, please email: info@mediamarketingconsultants.com
Back Home
