Midwest Research Institute is designing sensors for pilotless aircraft that can detect the presence of biological-warfare agents. The aircraft, called the ScanEagle, is launched with a catapult-like device.

Scientists at Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City have proved they know how to make a sophisticated sensor.

Now they have to build one rugged enough to survive a jolt into the sky at up to 25 times the force of gravity and a possible crash into the ocean.

“The simplest design is usually the best,” said Darren Radke, a staff engineer on a team of some two dozen members the institute assembled to work on a new $8.2 million biodefense project with Boeing Co.

They are designing a biological warfare sensor to be fitted on an unmanned aircraft called the ScanEagle. The institute’s portion of the project is valued about $1.7 million.

This project is part of initiatives at the institute that have driven annual research revenue up 88 percent since 2002, and promises to push it higher still over the next couple of years.

Even with this success, however, the institute remains an important, but relatively low-key member of the region’s growing scientific community. For the past five decades, the institute has been based in a complex along Brush Creek and just down the hill from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research, essentially a next-door neighbor of Midwest, is much younger, but tends to attract far more attention locally and across the nation. Part of this is not surprising, considering that Midwest routinely works on government or industrial projects requiring it to protect the confidentiality of classified information or trade secrets.

Yet the institute’s 135 laboratories, scientists and engineers among a Kansas City staff of about 350 and some of its pioneering pursuits are worthy of notice in a region with major aspirations to enhance its high-tech economy.

Turning to science for an economic boost is all the rage these days from Silicon Valley to New Jersey. The institute could be considered a trend-setter in this regard, considering that J.C. Nichols, the Kansas City real estate magnate, and other civic leaders formed the nonprofit organization in 1944 with the idea even then of deriving jobs out of research.

The institute may be a quiet asset in the region’s life-sciences sector, but a crucial one, said Kelly Gillespie, executive director of the Missouri Biotechnology Association.

The institute has built up strong intellectual capacity and forged effective alliances with researchers at places such as St. Louis University and University of Missouri campuses, Gillespie said.

The institute conducts contract research, specializing in a diverse range of fields that include food safety, health sciences, energy and national defense.

Over the years it has helped perfect a way to put a coating that melts in your mouth and not in your hands on M&M candies, and worked on other technology that can produce a cup of coffee in an instant.

Institute researchers also have worked in the defense field for at least 40 years. They began a more concerted push for these projects following the terrorist attacks in 2001, when concerns about chemical and biological attacks made biodefense big business.

The institute was well-positioned to win work in this area, said Frank Annecchini, a senior program manager at the institute.

“With our expertise in chemical and biological sciences it was a really good match,” Annecchini said.

The organization’s breakthroughs with air-sampling technology helped it win the most recent contract with Boeing.

The ScanEagle already is a combat veteran, logging thousands of flight hours in recent years.

The new Defense Department program calls for placing sensors on the pilotless aircraft that can detect the presence of biological-warfare agents.

Midwest emerged as a project participant after Boeing conducted an extensive analysis of whether it had the skilled staff members and expertise to do the work, said Keith Coleman, a Boeing program manager based in St. Louis.

The ScanEagle is launched with a catapult-like device that slingshots it into the air. It does not land so much as it is recovered when a “skyhook” on the craft snags a rope hanging from a 50-foot-tall pole.

The Kansas City team has assembled a series of aluminum tubes and other devices in an upstairs laboratory at the institute. They are trying to refine the equipment so it is reliable, can fit in a small compartment on the aircraft, and withstand the stress of takeoffs and landings.

Leaders at the institute are hopeful that the project with Boeing can serve as a model for other research and development teams that are capable of working on similar contracts, Annecchini said.

“If we deliver a great product, that is the best marketing you can have,” he said.

JASON GERTZEN-The Kansas City Star