De Oude Delft Orpheus
From Scramble - The Aviation Magazine
Contents |
History
The Orpheus pod was developed in The Netherlands by De Oude Delft, the Nationaal Lucht en Ruimtevaart Laboratorium and Fokker.
Description
The Orpheus weighs 350 kg and is normally carried in the centreline rack of the aircraft. It is optimised for high speed (500-1,000 km/h) low-level (30-500 m) camera runs, which were typical during the Cold War era [1]. The pod carried five day-light camera’s and an Infra Red Line Scanner (IRLS). The pod itself was developed by NLR and Fokker.
Camera's
Infra Red Line Scanner
The IRLS scans at a rate of 200 revolutions/second and produced tiny lines on a film cassette carrying 45 m of film.
Environment Control Unit
The Orpheus carries its own Environment Control Unit, including cooling by water evaporation (above 44 degrees C) and electic heating when the pod temperatures falls below 10 degrees C.
Versions
Orpheus IV
The Orpheus IV pod was the most advanced model, supplied to Italy for its AMX aircraft.
Supported platforms
Images
 Lay-out of Orpheus pod |
 AMX with Orpheus IV |
