NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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Dr. Stanley Herwitz (standing). PLEASE CREDIT images on this page to Bill Ingalls, NASA.

A solar-powered airplane, Pathfinder Plus, will fly over the largest coffee plantation in the United States, located on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in late September, early October 2002. The flights over the coffee fields will test the commercial use of a solar-powered uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) for precision agriculture. This technology might be used in the future for the management of other crops, as well as during natural disasters and in other emergency situations where digital aerial images are needed quickly. UAVs are remotely piloted aircraft. Researchers envision that ultimately these aircraft will be authorized to fly over wildfires, floods and crops to take images that would help forest firefighters, disaster relief workers and farmers.

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UAV Coffee Project-Pathfinder Plus communication 'dishes'

UAV Coffee Project-Pathfinder Plus communication 'dishes'

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Coffee

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Coffee crop

Coffee crop

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Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft in hangar.

Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft.

Personnel consulting about flight of Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft.

Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft in hangar

Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft

Pathfinder Plus solar powered aircraft

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Close-up, coffee 'cherry'