The E1 Gavilán ('Sparrowhawk' in English) is an unmanned electrical-surveillance airplane designed and manufactured by the Mexican firm Hydra Technologies. The aircraft is a remotely controlled

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

. The Gavilán was unveiled on June 10 2008, at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) North America 2008 event in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The airplane was also displayed at the

Farnborough Airshow The Farnborough International Airshow is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, where civilian and military aircraft are demonstrated to potential customers and investors in Farnborough, Hampshire. Since its first show in ...

on July 14 2008.

Description

The Gavilán is a multipurpose reusable unmanned aerial system for surveillance. It's faster and requires less space compared to the S4 Ehécatl. The plane's main feature is that it does not rely on a runway for takeoff, making it easier to maneuver on uneven terrain by the help of manual control. The aircraft has a 90-minutes flight autonomy, and is controlled by a single user by means of a portable Ground Control Station(GCS). The system was developed by the Mexican Federal Government, Nafinsa and academic or scientific institutions such as CONACYT,

Instituto Politécnico Nacional The National Polytechnic Institute (), abbreviated IPN, is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 171,581 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is the second-best university in Mexico in the techni ...

, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara and

ITESO ''ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara'' — distinct from the University of Guadalajara — also known as ''Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, ITESO'' (Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education), is a ...

Specifications

Unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

(UAV) *Weight: 5 kg *Operation radio: 10 km *Take-off mode: Catapult *

Payload Payload is the object or the entity that is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of t ...

: Interchangeable module equipped with mission sensor and flight camera *Extension: 150 cm (1.5 m) *Power source:

Electric Battery An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive Terminal (electronics), terminal is the ...

*Autonomous power: Electric Engine *Flight autonomy: 90 minutes *Operational Height: Around 8000 feet above sea level.

Uses

* - The Mexican Secretariat of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, SSP).

References

External links

* Official web-page
Hydra Technologies de Mexico

Gallery