Metro Aviation, a worldwide aircraft completion leader, recently delivered a one-of-a-kind helicopter to the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.  The Airbus H125 (formerly the AS350) will serve as a unique observation platform to provide the scientific community with the capability to make unprecedented observations about the earth’s climate system and human health.

Metro’s team of engineers worked closely with Dean Roni Avissar to create an attachment to hold a system of sophisticated scientific sensors and a full inertial monitoring system, including differential GPS and accelerometers.  The final sensor carrying rod measured just under 13 feet long and was mounted on the aircraft using a Meeker Aviation AirFilm Camera System and a vibration damping device.

“Adapting our scientific instrumentation on a helicopter in a way that eliminates aerodynamic and mechanical interferences with the measurements is a complex engineering and realization project,” said Avissar.  “Metro Aviation has been a fantastic partner in this project, helping us address challenging issues while working with a difficult timetable.  Their amazing technological capability and enthusiasm to help us obtain the best possible system has been tremendously invaluable to what is a very unique project.”

“The observations we can achieve with our new aircraft are crucial to improving our understanding of the climate system, especially in relation to weather forecasting and human health,” said Avissar.