On June 8 at 11:00 a.m., RTE and Delair-Tech set a new distance record when they flew a civilian drone 30 miles (50 kilometers). The official purpose of the flight, which took place in France, was to inspect by remote camera RTE’s power lines as well as recording data that would allow it to build models of its European power grid.
Pioneer in BVLOS technology, Delair-Tech drones are fit to travel long distance. With this 30 miles long UAV flight, Delair-Tech continues to demonstrate its capacity for innovation in Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) UAV flights, adding for the first time a 3G communication network to guide the drone.
For this landmark flight, two pilots were used for takeoff and two for the landing phase. The flight was on autopilot with the GPS data integration within the drone. To enable this experimental BVLOS 30 miles flight, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted the companies the right to use a specific flight corridor and defined a clear regulatory framework.
“More flexible to use, the UAV offers a complementary solution to helicopter inspections for network maintenance conducted by the RTE. This first 30 miles BVLOS flight illustrates the RTE’s commitment to constant innovation that contributes to electricity that is safer, cheaper, and more respectful of the environment,” said Patrick Bortoli, Director of Maintenance RTE.
“We are delighted to partner with RTE, confirming that renowned industrial customers are committed to drone solutions. In collaboration with RTE, we used for the first time in France a 3G network to guide the drone, allowing real-time communication from any distance. This removes an important technological barrier. It is a first step toward making drones the most common method for inspections of infrastructure that stretches over large distances, such as power lines and pipelines. Drones offer enormous potential to deliver strong efficiency gains for our customers,” said Michael Lagarde, President & Co-Founder of Delair-Tech.
RTE has been experimenting with the use of drones in its operations since 2011. The company in 2016 began using drones more extensively for shorter-range inspections of its electricity transmission network and its cable laying. RTE hopes to one day be using drones for longer-range missions, which could help reduce the cost, mitigate the danger of inspections on infrastructure that is remote and difficult to access, and avoid long interruptions to electricity service when maintenance must be done.
Source: Press Release
What is so noteworthy about this flight? 30 miles is nothing really. We did one that was over 400Km on 1 battery lasting 8+ hours over a year ago, same size plane and sensor payload. Unless this is just a company milestone for Delair-Tech I fail to see significance of news worthiness.
John, I think the milestone is mostly in the PR guys head…. Oooo look stockholders we are tech savvy!!!. That being said… Flying the flights in close proximity to Hi KV power lines the whole way does indeed up the ante a bit. What would have been note worthy is flying close enough to help charge the batteries from inductive charging…. Now that would have had me excited.