AEROSONDE DEDICATION: Laima enters the Boeing Museum of Flight
By Rick Allison
On Saturday, March 6, 1999, Aerosonde Laima, the first autonomous aircraft and the smallest aircraft of any type to complete a transatlantic crossing, was inducted into the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.
The dedication ceremonies included a complete review of the Aerosonde project (detailed in Model Aviation in the May 1996 and April 1999 issues), as well as historic videotapes of the Bell Island, Newfoundland launch and the recovery in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, 26 hours later.
Laima will be permanently displayed next to the Gossamer Albatross in the Museum of Flight section devoted to aviation accomplishments. Museum curators described themselves as "very, very pleased" with the donation of the historic aircraft.
Development and sponsorship
The transatlantic crossing was the culmination of a seven-year development project by Dr. Tad McGeer's Insitu Group — a small research company headquartered in White Salmon, Washington — and Environmental Systems and Services of Australia. The crossing attempt and much of the development project were sponsored by:
- the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
- the U.S. Office of Naval Research
- The Boeing Company
- L-3 Communications
- the University of Washington
A new private company, Aerosonde Robotics, has been formed to produce the Aerosonde commercially and to train and coordinate meteorological bureaus and other customers in weather-tracking deployment and the varied other commercial uses of the craft.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
