Excerpt from press release from Institute Of Photonic Sciences "from Bottles, packaging, furniture, car parts... all made of plastic. Today we find it difficult to imagine our lives without this key material that revolutionized technology over the last century. There is wide-spread optimism in the scientific community that graphene will provide similar paradigm shifting advances in the decades to come. Mobile phones that fold, transparent and flexible solar panels, extra thin computers... the list of potential applications is endless. Scientists, industries and the European Commission are so convinced of the potential of graphene to revolutionize the world economy that they promise an injection of €1.000 million in graphene research." See full article Continue reading

I'm not sure but this might be the first aircraft launched and recovered aboard the USS Midway in over a decade... At any rate we had a blast and have been invited back and are looking forward to it. Cheers, John Surmont Founder/Chief Design Officer/CEO for Sofcoast, Inc. Continue reading

Personal UAVs are the next big toy and physical app. At the University of Warwick, a prototype UAV flew inside structurally unsound, hazardous, or radioactive buildings to identify hazards. Flying in these environments requires superior situational awareness, with the operator relying on onboard cameras operating in low-light conditions. Collisions are always a risk. The Warwick researchers have come up with a UAV that requires only destination coordinates. The prototype uses an Xsens MTi sensor. Xsens combined its sensor-fusion algorithms and wireless protocols with STMicroelectronics' iNEMO-M1, 9-axis MEMS to demonstrate a wireless 3-D body motion tracking system based on consumer-grade MEMS combo sensors. Continue reading

After five years of development, Sofcoast is bringing to market a safe and easy to use aerial imagery / live broadcasting system - AKA "Aerial Coverage device" that can provide persistent and unobtrusive wildlife monitoring along with other civil and security applications. Continue reading

Open Source Smartphone Thermal Imaging Accessory Continue reading

One hour interview/discussion today with Patrick Egan over at SUASNews (http://www.suasnews.com/) to discuss SOF/NSW historical background and provide a viewpoint on present day US integration efforts. Continue reading

The vision for SUAS needs to be much bigger - because it's impact is much bigger. It will affect every single person in the United States. Meanwhile the Federal Aviation Administration's desired and default approach to enabling this industry through airspace integration is what amounts to be a form of "imminent domain". But done in secret and not with local community involvement. Continue reading

The FAA has indefinitely delayed site selection for unmanned aircraft system trial flights, effectively stalling the push to integrate UAS into civil airspace. In a letter to Congressman Howard McKeon, Republican from California and chairman of the House Unmanned Systems Caucus, the FAA has stated that the establishment of six test sites for UAS for experimentation is suspended. “Our target was to have six test sites by the end of 2012,” says the letter, signed by acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta. Continue reading

Rowing by Soundgarden Don't know where I'm going, I just keep on rowing I just keep on pulling, gotta row Don't know where I'm going, I just keep on rowing I just keep on pulling, gotta row Moving is breathing and breathing is life Stopping is dying, you'll be alright... Continue reading

As a result of decades as end user's/practioner's and five years in the lab, the Sofcoast team is bringing it's vision for tactical information systems to market, starting with their pioneering work in defining a new category of tethered inflatable aerial platform called the Hybrid Air System. Continue reading

I have said it before and I'll say it again, I believe this is a national issue and of great importance and interest to every American. I've spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours working unmanned systems issues in my career both as a military member and now as a civilian. The most difficult set of issues that I have personally dealt with (and still deal with) are unmanned systems access to the national airspace in the United States. Continue reading

I'm reading a book called "Turning Pro" and thought I'd share a post by the publisher, Black Irish Books that provides some background meaning about the cover of the book. Refreshing. Enjoy. Continue reading

The purpose of the Otay Ranch Town Center flight was to provide unique viewing angles and vantage points for lightweight High Definition camera's while fly in high visibility / high profile / high traffic area's such as an outdoor shopping mall in Southern California. Continue reading

This happened so fast that I didn't have time to work with any of the Sofcoast payload partners and literally strapped a couple of nonstabilized gopro camera's onto MAKO and "went with it." It's only going to get better - and this is pretty good. Especially since I'm standing in the crowd and nobody realizes until they do and they're like "wow! that's cool!" Life is good. Continue reading

In a previous post titled "The Elephant in the Room" I described my emotional journey and a milestone event for me where in order to allow our company and product to continue to build momentum both in product maturity and accelerating momentum towards market acceptance and entry, I needed put my ego aside and be satisfied with the artistic and utilitarian nature of the MAKO product. Continue reading

We're pretty excited to have been given permission to release images and video publicly of our maturing relationship with Lockheed Martin Skunkworks to bring the Sofcoast's ASAP XP MAKO Hybrid Air System to market this year. Continue reading

As a result of over 50 years as end user's/practioner's and over four years in the lab, the Sofcoast team is bringing it's vision for tactical information systems to market, starting with their pioneering work in defining a new category of tethered inflatable aerial platforms called Hybrid Air Systems. Hybrid Air Systems combine the most desirable features of Small Unmanned Aerial System's, aerostats (balloons on strings) and kites to deliver a superior product for man portable persistent fixed or mobile elevated platforms. Continue reading

Frankly, I was speechless for about an hour after actually seeing the aerial footage tonight at dinner. Obviously, we were all pretty optimistic about MAKO going into today. To put it mildly, by the end of the day, we were astounded. Continue reading

We think that being able to give two handheld radio's at least a 30 mile range from two rucksacks is a pretty good value proposition for soldiers, police officers, firefighters, NGO's and others. Continue reading

In SEAL Team training, there is a single word that means "it's time to pay". Continue reading

Sofcoast's first Hybrid Air System, MAKO, gives end user's the ability to man transport an elevated tactical aerostat and provide actionable intelligence to a forward commander. Most fielded aerostat systems are extremely large, requiring multiple large steel bottles of helium to field. TheMAKO system is entirely man-portable, and coupled with the right types of payloads, in this instance a pan tilt zoom HD Color and High Resolution Thermal Imager, MAKO provides a quiet, easy to deploy and inexpensive asset to a ground commander. Continue reading

Join Sofcoast at AFCEA West 2012 We're making a presence at the first Federal show of the year, the West 2012 conference, which will take place January 24-26 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. We'll be exhibiting our MAKO hybrid air system in the STAR-TIDES booth (#602) so be sure to stop by to learn about Hybrid Air Systems and Sofcoast's vision which is to enable more people to see and share more of their world more often and in more cost effective ways. West 2012 is co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, and is the largest defense technology event on the U.S. west coast for communications, electronics, intelligence, information systems and imaging.... Continue reading

I thought alot about whether or not to post anything about SEAL Team One's 50'th birthday, which ostensibly is the birthplace and starting point for all SEAL Team's. I think fellow SEAL and author Dick Couch say's it best, so I'm sharing his well written post on the 50th birthday from a recent issue of Naval History Magazine. Continue reading

Big Army wants to go small. In keeping with its push to equip infantry squads with the communications and intelligence-gathering gear necessary to act (somewhat) autonomously, the U.S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) has issued a Request for Information looking for industry input for the development of a small aerostat that can be controlled by a hand held controller, and be launched and recovered in 20 minutes or less. Continue reading