Article: DESERT HAWK SPY PLANE IS ON DUTY TINY CRAFT WEIGHS ONLY 7 POUNDS.(News)

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - A tiny spy plane developed by Lockheed Martin engineers in Palmdale is doing sentry duty around U.S. air bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Weighing seven pounds and looking like something out of a hobby shop, Desert Hawk controls itself without human guidance and carries video cameras and infrared sensors that allow security personnel to scout outside bases without exposing themselves to danger.

``A key factor of our system is it's fully autonomous. You don't have to have a guy standing there with a joy stick,'' said David Eichstedt, Lockheed Martin's project manager.

A product of Lockheed ...

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