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KOAR - Nov 9th, 2004. # 11155

The Pelican is a highly-modified Cessna 337, O2, Skymaster originally developed by the Office of Naval Research for low-altitude, long-endurance atmospheric and oceanographic sampling. Through an SBIR program between Zivko Aeronautics and GA, the air vehicle was configured to operate as a true Predator UAV surrogate for the U.S. Navy. Pelican has supported several military exercises that require a UAV capability for the troops to work with, but where a real UAV wasn't practical to operate due to FAA restrictions. With Pelican, the US Military can realistically train with capabilities very close to those of the UAV's that they will work with on the battlefield.