"insitu" is a valid word in written English.
It is an adverb meaning "in the natural or original position or place." For example, "The archeologist studied the ancient artifacts in situ."
About 20 companies, he estimates, fly spy drones for clients.One of them, a division of Boeing called Insitu, sees a lucrative untapped market in Afghanistan, where the intelligence needs of some smaller NATO countries are not being met by larger allies.
Built by Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, the ScanEagle can carry a video camera with night vision and a thermal imaging system.
McGeer and a fellow highly educated and Pynchonesquely named tinkerer named Andy von Flotow both Stanford Ph.D.s living in the Columbia River Gorge, east of Portland started a company called Insitu.
What incentive does Insitu have to build a civilian business at that price?
Alejandro Pita, Insitu's head of sales, declines to name customers, but says his firm's flights cost roughly $2,000 an hour for 300 or so hours a month.
While the small craft shown on the Iranian satellite channels Press TV and Al Alam resembled an image of a ScanEagle drone on the Web site of Boeing's Insitu Group, which manufactures the vehicle, a spokesman for the United States Navy said "We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently".
"For every two paper clips in weight we lose, we get another kilometer in range," said Steve Sliwa, president of a drone maker called the Insitu Group.
The engineers, at the University of Washington and a private company, the Insitu Group, are developing a new aircraft for the flight, planned for next summer or fall.
In February, the company struck a deal with the tiny Insitu Group in Seattle to build a 33-pound robot surveillance plane for the Navy.
