Airobotics Inc. was granted an Airworthiness Type Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its Optimus-1EX.
The FAA’s Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Mr. David Boulter has announced the grant of the Type Certificate during Commercial UAV Expo held in Las Vegas.
Airobotics Optimus-1EX is the second ever Uncrewed Aircraft to receive this certification and the first “Drone-in-a-Box solution”, designated for fully automated drone operations for emergency response and digital data capturing to obtain this status from the FAA.
“We are thrilled to be the only US company currently to have the capability to deploy fully automated drones with Type Certificate in the US as permanent aerial infrastructures in populated and complex environments,” said Meir Kliner, Airobotics’ CEO. “Drones without an airworthiness certificate face great obstacles in obtaining waivers to operate over people and active roads, and we believe that our Type certified Optimus-1EX drone will soon be deployed in a broader range of scenarios. The last type certificate given by the FAA was for a package delivery drone and now we have opened the opportunity for more lifesaving applications such as Drone First Responding (DFR), rapid infrastructure survey for disaster relief applications and more.”
The first-of-its-kind certification for a non-air carrier UA was achieved after four years of intensive engineering and operational review processes conducted by the FAA. The Optimus System is already operating regularly in urban environments in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Airobotics plans to leverage their experience in the UAE, and their newly type-certificated vehicle, to conduct similar operations in urban environments across the U.S., aligning with the Company’s vision of deploying fleets of Optimus Systems as a permanent drone infrastructure. This infrastructure aims to provide Smart City solutions, enhance public safety, enable Drone as a First Responder (DFR) capabilities, and offer various commercial and industrial aerial data services.
Source: Press Release