Test demonstrates safety and utility of unmanned aircraft for future commercial uses
Bell Textron recently announced today the successful flight of its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Bell Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70, as part of a joint flight demonstration with NASA.
Bell was selected to participate in NASA’s Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) activity in 2018, which includes multiple flight demonstrations focusing on different types of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and their flight environments.
The objective of Bell’s SIO demonstration was to execute a Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) mission in an urban environment transitioning into and out of Class B airspace representing future commercial flights.
Mission results will be used to evaluate and demonstrate Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Command and Control (C2) technologies for use in future certified operations in controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Data collected during the demonstration will be used to support future standards development and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification guidelines.
“This successful demonstration highlights the great potential for the APT 70 to complete complex missions for businesses and healthcare providers,” affirmed Michael Thacker, Executive VP, Innovation and Commercial Business.
Launching from Bell’s Floyd Carlson field in Fort Worth, TX, the APT 70 flew a pre-programmed 10-mile circuit path along the Trinity River. The vehicle executed its mission profile at an altitude of 500 feet above ground level.
“Our efforts with Bell and our other SIO industry partners will help commercial UAS move closer towards certification to make missions like this transport flight a common event,” asserted Mauricio Rivas, UAS integration in the NAS Project Manager, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Centre.
Thanks to its autonomous flight capability and intuitive interface, the simplistic of the UAV’s operation means that, for instance, a package of medicine could be delivered to a rural medical centre on an outward journey with blood samples for testing replacing the payload on the return journey, a press communiqué concluded.
