Boeing‘s [BA] Insitu subsidiary has introduced a new, man-portable small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for the public safety market, an attempt to open a new market niche with a new UAS product.

The short-range Inceptor UAS weighs less than four pounds, fits into the trunk of a squad car and provides stable, real-time video to a handheld ground control station. Insitu says the system can operate in sustained winds and wind gusts and still provide stable imagery.

The rotary-wing aircraft can stay aloft and operate for more than 20 minutes at up to 400 feet of altitude and patrol at speeds up to 24 mph.

Insitu is initially focusing on the law enforcement market for Inceptor although it has already generated interest from the military, Border Patrol and even farmers, Paul McDuffee, a business development executive with Insitu, tells TR2. But for now the company remains committed to going after law enforcement customers, he says.

McDuffee says the company doesn’t have an initial market estimate for its micro-UAS other than to say that the law enforcement community across the U.S. is expressing a lot if interest.

The micro-UAS is a new direction for Insitu, which supplies the much larger ScanEagle UAS to the Defense Department and is developing an even larger UAS, the Integrator for the DoD. The company has partnered with Adaptive Flight, Inc., which is providing the flight control system that McDuffee says is ahead of the competition in terms of enabling stable flight in windy conditions up to 25 and 30 knots.

Inceptor also features auto-tracking of a target and can fly autonomously from point-to-point based on pre-programmed instruction or be operated manually by the handheld unit. A camera aboard the Inceptor provides high-resolution video to a user. McDuffee says the system will be operating at low altitudes, which means it will be close to the target, able to provide “quick look” video to officers.

McDuffee says that in testing the video is stable even when operating in windy conditions.

Imagery can be recorded for post-processing and Insitu is looking to make the system Wi-Fi based so that it can operate on unlicensed frequencies to enable additional authorized officers to view the video on a smart phone, McDuffee says.

Insitu is developing a beta version of Inceptor it plans shortly to deliver to initial customers to gain operational lessons and provide feedback to the company prior to beginning full production in the first quarter of 2012, McDuffee says.

Insitu believes the timing is right to enter the micro-UAS field for the domestic market given that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is moving, albeit slowly, toward integration of small UAS into the national air space, McDuffee said. This fall the FAA is expected to release a notice of proposed rulemaking that will mark the “first concrete steps” for integrating these systems into the national air space, he says.

This is a “big deal” because it marks the first attempt at baseline requirements for national air space flight” for small UAS, McDuffee says. Small UAS are defined as weighing less than 55-pounds.

Insitu plans to offer Inceptor for about $50,000, the price of a well equipped Crown Victoria operated by police forces, McDuffee says.

In addition to an electro-optic camera for day time use, an infrared camera is in development for Inceptor, McDuffee says.

Insitu is developing the Inceptor system to be easy to use. The aircraft takes off from the ground with a one-button push start and a user can be trained in about an hour. The objective is it is “extremely simple” to use the system, McDuffee says.