6 February 2019
+VIDEO Cranfield Airport has started testing drones to establish ways of flying unmanned air vehicles in the same airspace as manned aircraft.
The National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC) is a collaboration between Cranfield University and Blue Bear Systems Research.
Blue Bear executed three-kilometre Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) race track flights within the Cranfield Air Traffic Zone, utilising their Blackstart Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).
Regulations currently require drones to operate within visual line of sight of the operator at all times.
The NBEC partners believe the key to future drone operations is not segregation, but unification ensuring fair and equitable use of airspace for all.
Ian Williams-Wynn of Blue Bear, said, “When fully operational, the NBEC will be operated with Blue Bear and Cranfield running their respective systems, and will create an environment that allows other companies to come and test their UTM (Unified Traffic Management) concepts in a safe, managed environment.”
