of the four-dimensional (4-D) distribution of water vapor and its application to improving the understanding and prediction of convection. The NASA Holographic Airborne Rotating Lidar Instrument Experiment was flown as a part of this project. Flights were performed in coordination with Lockheed P-3 and DC-8 aircraft. NASA Crystal-FACE In July 2002, Proteus participated in Crystal-FACE, measuring tropical cirrus clouds, operating from Key West, Florida, flying as far south as Belize. For this phase of the project, the aircraft was configured with canards and -foot wingtip extensions. ARM-UAV Proteus has been used in a number of deployments as a part of a project sponsored by the DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program and the Sandia National Laboratories to study cirrus clouds in the upper atmosphere. During these flights, the aircraft was equipped with over 20 sensors mounted on five parts of the aircraft. In November 2002, Proteus participated in another phase of the project, flying from Ponca City. In October 2004, Proteus operated out of Fairbanks, Alaska, and, in February 2006, the aircraft was deployed to Darwin, Australia. Space trapeze In May and June 2005, Transformational Space Corp., or t/Space, flight tested their rocket release concept utilizing Scaled Composites' Proteus. A captive-carry test flight was performed on May 13, and the rocket mockup was dropped three times, on May 24, June 7 and June 14, over Edwards AFB. The mockup was a 23% scale model of a proposed four-person crew capsule (called the CXV) and its AirLaunch LLC-produced QuickReach II booster. These particular flight tests were to demonstrate the concept of t/Space's Trapeze/Lanyard (TLAD) air drop system. Model 395 development Northrop Grumman is using the Proteus to research new UAV technologies, as it can be controlled from the cockpit, a ground control station, or operate semi-autonomously. Scaled, in partnership with Northrop Grumman, is offering a fully uncrewed version of the Proteus, labeled Model 395, as part of the competition for the USAF Hunter-Killer competition. If selected, that product would have been flown in 2007. On February 24, 2005, Proteus became Scaled's first bomber with the release of an inert 500-pound weapon over Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Global Hawk radar On April 27, 2006, Proteus flight tested a large pod designed to house a developmental version of the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program, or MP-RTIP. This is a long range, high resolution air-to-ground and air-to-air synthetic aperture radar system being developed