Turkish delight for drone traffic system
A technology platform for managing drone traffic has been successfully trialled on a number of test flights that took place near the Turkish capital of Ankara.
The Pop-Up UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) system has been developed by the UK’s Altitude Angel in partnership with satcom giant Inmarsat and A-TechSYN, an Irish UAV company headquartered in County Clare.
During testing throughout October and November 2020, an A-TechSYN CGT50 VTOL UAV flew a series of autonomous BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) flights, which were initiated and monitored by a pilot 60km away from the take-off and landing area.
Scilly drone flight paves way for commercial service
The flights were tracked using Inmarsat’s L-band satellite network, which communicated with a Cobham Aviator 200 satcom solution onboard the UAV. Using the UTM platform, Altitude Angel was able to track, monitor and manage the UAV from its headquarters in Reading. At one point in the trail, the system detected a possible conflict with a commercial aircraft, resulting in the Pop-Up UTM correctly triggering a warning to ‘de-conflict’ the two aircraft and avoid a collision.
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