Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi has successfully validated a sense-and-avoid system designed to allow the integration of unmanned air vehicles into civil airspace.
In a series of recent tests at Grazzanise air base, the company flew multiple sorties using its Sky-Y UAV in conjunction with its C-27J transport.
The Sky-Y was equipped with the Mid-air Collision Avoidance System (MIDCAS), which Alenia has been developing as part of a consortium under a European Defence Agency (EDA) initiative.
Alenia Aermacchi
In order to test MIDCAS’s ability to identify other aircraft in congested airspace and then manoeuvre to avoid them, the C-27J was intentionally flown as close as 150m (490ft) to the UAV, at different attitudes and from different directions.
Additionally, the trials evaluated the best combination of sensors to allow the UAV to build up an accurate picture of the surrounding airspace, including of aircraft not equipped with position transponders.
MIDCAS is a research project contracted by EDA on behalf of five partner countries – Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and Spain – and featuring industrial and research champions from the various nations.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
