An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) successfully completed its maiden flight, which was a new milestone in Taiwan's progress in the field, academic sources said Wednesday. The unmanned aircraft, dubbed Spoonbill, successfully flew 92 kilometers from Taiwan to the outlying island of Penghu on Tuesday on what was the first flight of its kind across the Taiwan Strait, NCKU said in a press statement.

The Spoonbill UAV took off at 9: 20 a.m. under manual remote control, flying at 100 kph at an altitude of 300 meters toward Penghu's Dongji island. Ten minutes after takeoff it was beyond the team's field of vision and was switched to automatic control. For about 30 minutes or so the team lost computer contact with the aircraft and there was some anxiety over the success of the test. However, at around 10:00 a.m., the mainframe computer began receiving information from the aircraft again and the research team piloted the aircraft by remote control to a landing at 10: 17 a.m. on Dongji islet, completing the 52-minute historic flight.

The NCKU's Remotely Piloted Vehicle & Micro Satellite Research Laboratory (RMRL) built the Spoonbill UAV in April this year after 20 years of research and development. The aircraft measures 2.2 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 0.9 meter high. The Spoonbill's onboard systems include wireless module for wireless data link between the aircraft and the ground control station (GCS) ; an onboard surveillance camera that takes aerial videos/images; and a video transmitter to transmit onboard video to the GCS in real time — 80 percent of the Spoonbill's parts and components were made in Taiwan. (Source: Taiwan News)