Dornier GEAMOS and SEAMOS

GEAMOS and SEAMOS were unmanned free-flying rotor platforms from Dornier, a development of the tethered Kiebitz programme. GEAMOS stands for the German words for a battlefield reconnaissance and location system and SEAMOS for a sea reconnaissance and location system. Dornier developed GEAMOS with its own money, saw a market for both systems for the army and navy, and when the trials went well the federal defence ministry paid for further development and for tests of launch and landing on heavily pitching ship decks. The Kiebitz tether had limited the height to 300 metres, so the new craft were to carry sensors to 4,000 metres, giving a line of sight of about 250 kilometres. For the demonstrator Dornier licensed the American Gyrodyne QH-50 drone helicopter, bought two used examples and kept only rotors, gearbox and engine, replacing flight control, avionics and data link and adding a French radar in a radome under the platform. Dornier stopped the GEAMOS programme in 1993 before free flights began, the craft was later rebuilt for SEAMOS, and SEAMOS development ran to 1998 with trials until 2002.