Jacksonville District’s UAV program soars

John H. Campbell, USACE JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  ”All right guys, going into take-off mode. You are hot!” Everyone aboard the airboat grows quiet. It’s the moment they’ve been anticipating after hours of preparation that started shortly after dawn on this late November day. Biologist Jon Morton has been leading the team through pre-operational checks. “Three…two…one…launch!” The pilot flips a switch on a remote control. Suddenly, the sound of a high-speed propeller fills the air around Eagle Bay at Lake Okeechobee. A small airplane that looks like a toy is thrown skyward. Only this airplane is no toy. It’s an important piece of equipment that helps Morton and other biologists track the effectiveness of their efforts on invasive plants. The NOVA Unmanned Aerial Vehicle offers the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a low-cost method of obtaining pictures from the air for a wide variety of applications. “The NOVA has been developed to provide a technological edge for us,” said Larry Taylor, NOVA Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, program manager. “Its specialty is detecting and monitoring change over time. We have used it for levee monitoring. We have detected anomalies in the levees that weren’t detected by ground observation.” In addition to the […]
Jacksonville District’s UAV program soars