For Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft, RAAF Bases Edinburgh, Woomera, Curtin and Scherger, Australia
The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle touched down at the RAAF Base at Edinburgh in early May 2001 after flying 13 500 km non stop from California, for trials along Australia’s extended coastline. The Global Hawk aircraft had been involved in a long-running Australia-US program to test unmanned aircraft for long-range surveillance duties.
In preparation for the programming of flight missions for the unmanned vehicle, Sinclair Knight Merz was commissioned to undertake precise Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys for the RAAF Bases at Edinburgh and Woomera (SA), Curtin (WA) and Scherger (QLD).
To ensure that the required accuracies were achieved, the Sinclair Knight Merz team provided 24 hour continuous GPS observations. This information was then processed using AUSLIG’s on-line Differential GPS Geodetic processing service. Tight deadlines were imposed which had to meet commercial flight schedules and be flexible enough to accommodate the weather constraints.
The first stage of the field work involved the use of GPS to coordinate a number of points at the RAAF Bases Edinburgh and Woomera. The second stage involved GPS observations at RAAF Base Curtin, near Derby in Western Australia, and RAAF Base Scherger, near Weipa in Queensland.
Sinclair Knight Merz staff worked closely with Defence personnel both on site and in Canberra’s Command Headquarters to ensure perfect unmanned landings of the aircraft at the various Defence facilities.