Insitu raises $25 million for new craft. Spy plane maker anticipates profits this year

Sliwa anticipates ending the year at 260 employees, boasting that Bingen, Washington probably now has more Ph.D.s per capita than anyplace in the world.

Insitu http://www.insitu.com/ , whose unmanned aircraft are used in military and homeland security operations, has scored $25 million in venture funding that it will use to launch a new aircraft next year called the Integrator.

The 125-pound aircraft — unlike the company’s lighter, four-year-old ScanEagle — includes a payload bay for carrying up to 45 pounds of scientific or communications equipment, said Chief Executive Steve Sliwa. For example, communications equipment could be placed in the payload bay during a natural disaster to create what Sliwa calls a "cell phone tower in the sky" for 24 hours.

By JOHN COOK
P-I REPORTER

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