Insitu’s ScanEagle N202SE is headed to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The UAS, which will be located in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, was the first to complete an FAA-approved commercial beyond visual line of sight flight in the contiguous 48 states.

The ScanEagle’s first commercial flight came on Sept. 12, 2013, when it launched from a fishing vessel called Westward Wind and completed a 36-minute flight over the Chukchi Sea off the northern Alaskan coast, in an effort to collect data on ice floe forecasting.

As a part of the FAA’s Pathfinder initiative, the ScanEagle completed its most important flight last year when it flew beyond the visual line of sight of its operators as a part of a week long track and infrastructure inspection for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway in New Mexico.

Insitu’s president and CEO Ryan M. Hartman said he is proud to see the company’s UAS be featured prominently at the Air and Space museum.

“At a time when the unmanned aviation industry is advancing faster than ever, we take great pride in the pioneering work Insitu has done to help shape this path,” said Hartman. “We are honored to be represented in the place that embodies the spirit of aviation that we strive for each day.”

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