Silent Falcon conducted a series of successful Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) demonstration flights as part of NASA's Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) system.
NASA's UTM program is developing a civilian traffic control system for autonomous low altitude Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations. This will create a safer flight environment.
"The ability to fly BVLOS is critical so that UAS can reach their full potential" says Howard Loewen, President of MicroPilot.
MicroPilot has 20 years of experience building autopilots for a variety of autonomous platforms that have been flown by MicroPilot autopilots in a wide variety of conditions.
This expertise provides a highly reliable autopilot, a crucial characteristic for a UAS expected to fly independent BVLOS operations autonomously while also taking directions from the UTM.
"We are pleased to have flown our Silent Falcon unmanned aircraft system as part of the successful completion of this phase of the NASA UTM project." said John W. Brown, Silent Falcon UAS Technologies President and CEO.
"This project is of particular interest to us as we manufacture a long range, long endurance fixed wing UAS that is designed for BVLOS applications.
"Our systems regularly perform BVLOS missions in other countries and the UTM project is an important step in making safe BVLOS flight in the US national airspace a reality. We look forward to further participation as the project continues to move forward."
from Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense http://ift.tt/2epVXfh
via space News
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