OVERVIEW A defense prime contractor awarded ATA Engineering a contract to design the packaging for an infrared sensor to be used on an unmanned aerial vehicle. During preliminary analysis, it was determined that the aerodynamic pressure on a fixed sensor window during flight would require a very costly, high-strength material that would have an unacceptably adverse effect on the window’s transmissivity at wavelengths of interest. The solution that ATA developed was an innovative “eye-ball” concept, which rotates the window into position to view and track the target and adequately protects it during the rest of the launch and flight phases. Selecting off- the-shelf components where possible, ATA designed a pan-and-tilt mechanism, tray structure, and the mounting configuration for the

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