Tech 1 Air Scouts are low cost air reconnaissance units. They cost about 80% as much as a tech 1 interceptor, but are very fast and have a large vision radius. They have extremely low HP, and are completely unarmed.
There are 2 styles to scouting with these: group and flood. Group scouting involves producing multiple scouts and then sending them over the enemy base(s) all at once. Flood scouting consists of setting the rally point over the enemy base and setting an Air Factory to build a constant supply. While both of these methods worked well in the original Supreme Commander, their higher cost and low survivability reduces the effectiveness of either technique in Forged Alliance.
Tech 1 Interceptors can see further than they can shoot, but require an approach phase to their target for maximum efficiency. Mixing air scouts with interceptors at a 1:5 or 1:10 ratio can greatly increase their effectiveness. Also, grouping 20 or more scouts with a Transport provides effective protection against AA unless the opponent is able to effectively micro-manage their AA defenses. The increased price of air scouts in Forged Alliance made this technique less useful than in the original game.
The four tech 1 air scouts are the UEF Hummingbird, the Cybran Flying Eyes, the Aeon Mirage and the Seraphim Sele-istle. Apart from the usual minor health differences cross-faction, the Seraphim Sele-istle has a unique ability called deathcam. This provides Sele-istle vision radius of 30 for 20 seconds after death.
An interesting development is that depending on the positioning of the AA, it could shoot in the empty space between the wings of the Sele-istle, making it a little harder to hit than the hummingbird, and, basically the best scout.