“Hurricane Hunters” visiting from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) celebrated a record this week after deploying an unmanned probe directly inside the retreating Hurricane Edouard.

“We launched mobile drones out of the belly of our P3 aircraft to look at how the lowest layers of the atmosphere and the upper part of the ocean interface,” explained mission director Joe Cione.

“We’ve launched four of these aircraft over the last three days. We had historic results — for 68 minutes we measured that critical area.”

The NOAA team were congratulated on their mission by Premier Michael Dunkley, Deputy Governor Ginny Ferson, US Consul General Robert Settje and Junior National Security Minister Jeff Baron.

“We’re happy to have you around — if you’re here, it means the storm isn’t,” Mr Dunkley joked.

The crew flew twice through the buffeting winds of Edouard’s eye wall as the dwindling hurricane headed off into the North Atlantic.

Rear Admiral Anita Lopez told The Royal Gazette it had been at least ten years since the Hurricane Hunters had come to the Island, but that Edouard afforded an ideal opportunity to research the storms.

“We flew through the eye on two different passes while taking sensory readings,” she said, adding that the turbulent trip had been her first flight after being promoted to admiral earlier this year.

The Coyote unmanned aircraft descended to study the interplay between the storm and the sea, by which hurricanes derive their power.

Dr Cione said numerous and complex factors influence this point of contact, which can partially explain why the storms’ behaviour is so difficult to predict.

Hurricanes can drift into cooler northern seas, only to abruptly surge back into life.

Lieutenant Commander Justin Kibbey said the use of drones was “still in that test phase right now”, but would prove instrumental in keeping scientists from having to risk flying into the storms.

Coyotes are buoy-like devices with a five-foot wingspan, originally built by the US Navy for surveillance. They are the first unmanned craft deployed directly inside a hurricane from the NOAA hunter aircraft.

They are not designed to be retrieved, as Dr Cione explained the storm waves in the open ocean can reach 50 to 60 feet.

“They’d be very hard to recover — although maybe someday we could,” he said.

The Lockheed WP-3D Orion plane drew some interest from the public along Southside Road. Although yesterday’s mission was a first for the Coyote, the plane, built in 1975, is a veteran of dozens of hurricanes, commemorated by cyclone-shaped red insignia on its side. It returns tomorrow to its base in Tampa, Florida.