A light-small whiskbroom scanning thermal imaging system with area-array detector was developed.Wide field of view(WFOV)and high resolution imaging was realized by area-array detector and whiskbroom scanning of the system optical element in the wingspan direction.At the same time,the field of view(FOV)shift caused by roll attitude disturbance was corrected by reverse compensation of the gimbal.Then WFOV and high resolution image without FOV shift was obtained through a functional verification test.This imaging system has simple optical-mechanical structure and obvious advantages in volume and weight,and has a broad application prospect in thermal infrared remote sensing of minitype unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV).The result is valuable for pushing the development of thermal imaging technology of UAV to WFOV and high resolution.