ECARO flight trials ready to go

Today, 7th of June 2021, UMS Skeldar and DTA are ready for the ECARO flight trials campaign.

UMS Skeldar, UAS manufacturer and operating company based in Mohlin, Switzerland, arrived this week in the Grottaglie airport with its VTOL V150 for a 3-weeks flight test campaign. The system was deployed into the hangar that DTA provides to operators involved in the several R&I projects DTA participates, that have entered the flight experimentation phase. This first day is dedicated to familiarizing the teams, introducing the airport infrastructure, the DTA facilities (hangar and laboratory), the airport and ENAV staff. This knowledge is fundamental for smooth and safe operations.

In the afternoon, a meeting was held involving DTA, UMS, Aeroporti di Puglia and ENAV as well as representatives of Marina Militare and Guardia di Finanza, who also exploit the airport of Grottaglie. During the meeting, a number of coordination issues were discussed so that all the operators who use the airport of Grottaglie and air space are aware of the other actors and adhere to the same regulations, guidelines and approaches.

ECARO project, among other objectives, intends to build knowledge and experience of EGNSS-based flight capacity of UAS into controlled airspace. The V150, equipped with a EGNSS receiver, will operate a LPV approach procedure designed by ENAV for the Grottaglie airport. Several GNSS configurations will be tested to evaluate differences among them. A BVLOS operation, spanning about 10Km, will go through several air spaces, including military. The air spaces will be segregated during flight tests.
At the conclusion of the flight test campaign the improvements in precision and accuracy of GALILEO and EGNOS (with respect to GPS) will be evaluated and the benefits of these constellations for UAS will be clearer.

The flight trials will continue until 14th of June when, at 09.00, the results will be presented during a virtual conference planned for next 24th of June.
For more information and for registering at the conference, visit: https://www.dtascarl.org/en/2021/06/03/gnss-based-autonomous-uas-flight-demo-day/