Tue, Aug 18, 2020
The prototype of Airbus Helicopters’ VSR700 UAS has performed its first free flight. The VSR700 performed a ten minute flight at a drone test centre near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.
This is a significant step in the programme following the first flight in November 2019 when the prototype was tethered to comply with regulatory requirements. To enable this free flight, Airbus Helicopters implemented geofencing, a virtual perimeter, which enabled and justified a flight clearance from airworthiness authorities for free flight. The flight test programme will now evolve to progressively open the flight envelope. A team from Boeing and the U.S. Air Force completed the first QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Target to undergo conversion from a modification line in Arizona. The aircraft was flown last month to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, where it will be used autonomously in future weapons training operations. The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) located at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson teamed with Boeing under a public-private partnership to create a second modification line to supplement ongoing QF-16 work at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida. EHang has confirmed
that the EHang 216 has obtained a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) issued by Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), the civil aviation authority in Canada. This is reportedly another milestone in regulatory breakthrough for EHang 216 and the first of this kind permit for periodic operations of passenger-grade AAVs in North America. With the certificate, trial flights of EHang 216 AAVs can be routinely conducted in Québec province. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne-Unmanned!!!
Airborne-Unmanned 08.05.20 is chock full of info in this Weekly News Episode, Wednesday, August 5th, 2020... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Sophie Hurlock, Brianne Cross, Christopher Odom, and Laura Hutson, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalist Tom Patton, this episode covers:
- VSR700 Prototype Performs First Autonomous Free Flight
- First QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Target Completed
- EHang 216 Obtained Special Flight Operations Certificate from Transport Canada
- AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2020 Going Virtual, October 5 to 8
- FCC Fines Hobbyking More Than $2.8 Million For Drones
- Sea Turtle Conservation Flies Forward Thanks to New Drone Project
- The Summer 2020 ANN-King Schools Giveaway Is ON!
Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne-Unmanned" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, next week!
@2020, Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved.
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