Europe's leading provider of Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms, UMS Skeldar, arrived this week at the Grottaglie Airport in Italy with its V-150 Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) air vehicle ahead of a three-week flight test campaign with the Distretto Technologico Aerospaziale (DTA).

The tests form part of the ECARO project which, among other objectives, intends to build knowledge and experience of EGNSS-based flight capacity of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) into controlled airspace.

The Skeldar V-150, equipped with an EGNSS receiver, will operate a Localiser Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) approach procedure designed by ENAV for the Grottaglie Airport. Several GNSS configurations will be tested and evaluated.

The Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operation will span approximately 13km and 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 UAS's can bring to this mission will be presented during a virtual conference at the end of June.