BAE Systems granted CNN exclusive access to one of their unmanned test flights in early July, allowing passengers aboard for the first time in the process.At the time of filming, the plane had already racked up 480 flight hours using specialist UAS technology developed over the past six years as part of the $94 million ASTRAEA programme.
The project has brought together a consortium of six companies, BAE Systems, QinetiQ, Thales, Rolls Royce, Cobham and AOS. For those at the cutting edge of the industry, this is an exciting milestone.
“It’s probably the next major step in aviation, it’s a bit like introducing the jet engine,” said ASTRAEA Programme Director, Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal. “It’s a new branch of aviation all together.”
“(Next) we’ve got to find ways of introducing technology to replace the man on the aircraft and indeed amending the regulations. All the (current) regulations assume a pilot to be onboard the aircraft and that’s the way it’s been for the past 100 years or so.”
BAE Systems and partners need to prove to regulators that it is possible for unmanned aircraft to fly safely in commercial airspace.
“As industry, we’d like a full set of regulations to build something to. The regulators would like us to show them a product. The problem is, because there is a big gap between our understanding of manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft, we somehow have got to work together to bridge that gap and that’s what the ASTRAEA programme is all about,” says Dopping-Hepenstal.
However unmanned passenger flights are unlikely to be taking-off in the near future at least.
Instead, Dopping-Hepenstal believes the technology could first be adopted for cargo flights and for aircraft operating during hazardous emergencies such as wildfires.
These developments could then be fed back into military design and used to make commercial aircraft safer.
The technology tested by BAE Systems could also be transferred to other industries outside aviation.
“We are only limited by the power of our imagination with this technology and capability,” said Ruth Mallors, Director of the Aerospace Knowledge Transfer Network (AKTN).
“What is important (is) that UAS are not just airborne, they are water and land based too …. the Mars Rover is an autonomous vehicle in many aspects.
“There are many capabilities that are crying out for this technology — agriculture, surveillance, inspection regimes — but the breakthroughs will be where we discover applications of the technology not yet thought through.”
For seasoned pilots such as Fraser, however, the potential of this technology is about far more than the prospect of a profitable new industry.
” I think there will be a number of people for instance who can’t fly (now) — they’re airsick or wheelchair-bound — they’re not capable of being in the air. For them this will be an exciting future.”
Source: CNN