On 29 May 2013, the National Civil Aviation Agency – ANAC (Brazilian CAA) issued the first Experimental Flight Certificate for an RPAS to a private company in Brazil.
With this, XMobots, responsible for developing the Nauru 500 RPAS, becomes the only company in the country authorized by the ANAC to make flight tests for research and development purposes. Until then, only the Federal Police had an RPAS that was authorized to fly for civilian use in Brazil.
Headquartered in the technological centre of São Carlos (230 km from Sao Paulo), XMobots started the process of obtaining the Experimental Flight Certificate in November 2012, also involving the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL).
“This is the first step a manufacturer of RPAS needs to take to achieve the goal of commercial operations of a system” explained the director of the company, engineer Fábio Assis.
After the completion of an important step in the history of RPAS operations in Brazil, the entrepreneur revealed that XMobots has already started the internal activities related to engineering and flight tests, which will be submitted to ANAC and will culminate with the request for the authorization of commercial use. “Our expectation is that these steps will occur in a short period of time. As this is a relatively new industry in this country, these regulations must advance to ensure maximum safety in operations involving the use of RPAS” says the director of XMobots.
The general manager of the Product Certification Branch of the ANAC, Hélio Tarquínio, stated that the issuing of this Certificate shows the “maturity” of the Brazilian RPAS industry, and that ANAC “considers this subject relevant and is indeed undertaking work in order to facilitate RPAS operations”.
Inside Nauru:
- Endurance: 5.5 hours
- Communication range: 30 km
- Cruising speed: 108 km / h
- Maximum altitude: 3000 meters
- Wingspan: 2.32 meters
- Length: 1.83 meters