The Thales Watchkeeper Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) was successfully flown alongside a manned aircraft in controlled civil airspace, ...
The Thales Watchkeeper Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) was successfully flown alongside a manned aircraft in controlled civil airspace, a major milestone in integration of UAS into the commercial and civil air traffic.
The Watchkeeper flew in non-segregated air space, alongside commercial aircraft as a part of Project CLAIRE, a collaborative effort under Europe’s SESAR UAS demonstration programme.
The flight took place on Wednesday 30 September and saw Watchkeeper fly from West Wales Airport into civil controlled airspace for an hour, where it was successfully managed by NATS, the UK air navigation services provider, for the first time.
There it was controlled in exactly the same way as a traditional manned aircraft, despite the fact that the pilots were sat on the ground in a control room at the airport.
Using Watchkeeper, this aviation first will help develop the necessary operational and regulatory conditions to support a growing need for unmanned aircraft system to be used in commercial, search and rescue, homeland security tasks, critical infrastructure and border protection.
The Project CLAIRE partners include Thales, NATS, the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research) was set up in 2007 to modernise and harmonise ATM systems through the definition, development and deployment of innovative technological and operational solutions.
