Airborne right of way autonomous imager

A system for capturing a video record of an extended linear ground feature from an aircraft while said aircraft flies along it, comprising:

• a processor in said aircraft and including memory for storing and executing software and a database;
• an inertial measurement unit (IMU) mounted to said aircraft and in data communication with said processor for measuring velocity and orientation of said aircraft and for transmitting the measured velocity and orientation to said processor;
• a GPS receiver mounted to said aircraft and in data communication with said processor for measuring GPS coordinates of said aircraft;
• a camera gimbal mounted exteriorly of said aircraft having remote-control pan and tilt pointing capability, said camera gimbal being in data communication with said processor for remote pointing thereby;
• at least one video camera mounted on said camera gimbal;
• software stored in said memory and executable by said processor, said software including an analysis module for computing a closest coordinate point along said extended linear ground feature to said aircraft, and said software including a pointing module for pointing the video camera via said camera gimbal at the computer closest coordinate point along said extended linear ground feature and capturing a video record of said extended linear ground feature while the aircraft flies along it.