One of NASA's two Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude aircraft shows off its blue-and-white livery in front of its hangar at the Dryden Flight Research Center.

The ability of the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft to autonomously fly long distances and remain aloft for extended periods brings a Global Hawk capability to the science community for measuring, monitoring and observing remote locations of the Earth. The two Global Hawks were the first and sixth aircraft built under the original development program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and were made available to NASA when the Air Force had no further need for them.