World Record for Ship-Based Endurance Flight

On 5 August what is believed to be the longest-endurance flight ever made by an aircraft launched and retrieved at sea was completed by The Insitu Group's Seascan miniature robotic aircraft. Seascan Morgan was launched in darkness shortly after 5 am from the Shackleton, a 17-metre salmon seiner underway in Admiralty Bay north of Seattle , and retrieved back aboard shortly before 10 pm using Insitu's patented "Skyhook" system. Flight time was 16 hr 45 min at a speed of around 50 kt. The aircraft and its inertially-stabilized video turret were operated from Shackleton throughout the flight, maintaining continuous real-time surveillance and close inspection of sea conditions and shipping through Admiralty Inlet between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Guidance was fully autonomous from launch to retrieval. The flight demonstrated a typical mission anticipated in shipboard service, with pre-dawn launch, continuous search and inspection during daylight hours, and post-sunset retrieval. A complementary night capability was also demonstrated, with an infra-red equipped ScanEagle, also launched and retrieved from Shackleton, imaging the same area during the night before the record endurance flight.