Aircraft Onboard System Enhances UAV BVLOS Capability

The dawning age of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is a metaphorical wilderness contemporaneously abundant in reward and risk. The business of moving through any wilderness, metaphorical or actual, is a complex and delicate one, requiring temperance, circumspection, and courage in equal measure.

Of the technological trail-blazers arrayed upon Advanced Air Mobility’s vanguard, few are as consistently successful as uAvionix, the Montana-based aerospace technology concern founded in 2015 with the mission of advancing the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS).

In addition to eminently reliable, surprisingly affordable ADS-B solutions for manned and unmanned aircraft, uAvionix offers a host of forward-thinking technologies by which the whole of the air-going sector benefits. Among the nifty gadgets to which the uAvionix boffins have been plying their effort and expertise is muLTElink, an airborne, 4G communication radio for the company’s SkyLine Command and Control (C2) Network.

muLTElink enhances an Unmanned Air Vehicle’s (UAV) ability to roam across multiple ground stations without latency or risk of lost link. Avoiding lost link scenarios is critical to the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) capability salient to the maturation of many AAM concepts.

muLTElink allows for seamless and lossless switching between one radio type and another.   For example, LTE coverage may work very well under 400-feet AGL in a given location, but as a UAV transitions to higher altitudes or more rural locations, the need arises to switch to an alternate link, such as C-Band, to maintain positive control of the aircraft. SkyLine monitors and records comprehensive in-flight data for operators to prove platform and infrastructure integrity.

muLTElink is currently available for beta testing.

FMI: www.uavionix.com