A very flexible, sophisticated, low-cost and powerful commercial imaging spectrograph has been designed and developed that can provide resolutions from under one meter to several meters depending upon aircraft altitude and ground speed. The instrument uses a two-dimensional frame transfer CCD array to image a line beneath the aircraft and to sense the spectrum for each point in the scene. To keep data rates compatible with the built-in digital cassette recorder, a flexible scheme allows the operator to select the spectral bands and spatial information to be recorded. This compact airborne spectrographic imager can be employed to examine water quality, vegetation stress, fish schools, and to distinguish camouflage from vegetation.