Topic: The Canadian SnowGoose

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

Apparently, the US forces' psychological-ops teams were using Sherpas to deliver leaflet drops. Simply chucking leaflets out of a plane at height isn't very effective - the leaflets get caught by the wind and float away to Lord knows where. But you don't always want to fly low over places like Afghanistan. Hence the use of guided chutes.

But each Sherpa costs $20k or so and, in the case of leaflet drops, you don't get it back. Of course, $20k is the same sort of price one pays for a smart bomb - chickenfeed to the mainstream US forces. But the psyop lads don't have a mainstream-type budget.

"They asked us: 'Can you make them come back?'" said Ron Campbell, chairman of MMIST.

"So we came up with SnowGoose."

SnowGoose is essentially a motorised robot parachute, a bit like an automated sports paramotor. It adds a petrol Rotax engine and propellor to the GPS guidance and parachute and, after dropping its load, it will then happily fly away hundreds of miles to home base on its own.

Though designed for air drop, Campbell told the Reg that, in fact, more than 90 percent of SnowGoose operations in the field are launched from the ground. This requires no more than a small team of soldiers and a truck or Humvee to get the canopy up to flying speed. The SnowGoose has taken on many other missions besides leaflet dropping, and is highly prized by the US spec-ops community in Afghanistan for its simplicity and relative unobtrusiveness - as compared to a helicopter, say.

[Panzergranate]

A lot of UFO and flying saucer sightings, here in the UK, are Semi-Bouyant Recconaissance Drone, which just happen to be very large saucer shaped craft. I've had some involvement with winged drones, most of which are remotely piloted. Most used large Expanded Polystyrene dope skinned covered wings and were powered by the ubiqitous ROTAX 250cc twin cylinder 2 stroke pusher prop microlight engine.

Airspeed was about 100 to 120 Knots.

Needess to say, these were cheap and expenable 50 Pound payload delivery systems, remotely piloted from up to a hundred miles away. Just giant RC planes really. They could probally be used to drop leaflets, but never in the quanities of a Snow Goose.

They are all usually vehicle launched and usually fly at night, due to vulnerability to ground fire, slow speed, etc.

This automonus microlight type pilotless drone seems ingenious.

A box with an engine attached to a parachute. Slow but effective.

[Nemesis]

Another SnowGoose Link

Six cargo bays (three each side) can be used to carry modular fuel bins, cargo bins or fixed electronic payloads, permitting easy trade-off between payload capacity and endurance over the full flight envelope of the aircraft. Each standard cargo bin is suitable for dispensing up to 45 kg (100 lbs) of medical supplies, food, water, leaflets, ammunition, fuel, tools, or spare/replacement parts. High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachutes provide low observability delivery of 45 kg (100 lbs) bundles with autonomous precision.

Optional payloads flown to date include:

    * EO/IR camera;
    * Line of sight communications relay;
    * Metrological sensing unit;
    * Wind sonde dispenser;
    * Security Loudspeaker;
    * FM radio broadcast;

Payloads to be flown by the end of 2005 include:

    * High capacity satellite communications link (2 Mbps);
    * TV broadcast;