Aerospace & Defence
Cyberhawk drones are under 2kg in weight including cameras and equipment, and under one metre in length, we cannot fly beyond visual line-of-sight (VLoS) which is roughly 250 metres. This means that it has to be able to see the drone at all times to comply with the permissions from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or other countries’ aviation authorities.
specific flight permission has to be obtained from each country’s civil and defence aviation authorities. It cannot currently fly in Belgium because their rules do not permit commercial drone flights currently. “We will not fly anywhere unless we have official
permission,” Roberts concludes. “There are also challenges to flying in other countries like South Africa or in the Middle East - for example it will be possible to fly in Saudi Arabia following discussions with the government agencies and aviation authorities.” In June 2013, the European Commission’s
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Roadmap, paved the way for the safe integration of RPAS into the European airspace starting in 2016. Military exploitation of UAS has grown significantly in the recent years, but this trend has so far not been followed by the civil sector. Being remotely piloted, RPA can perform
Fig. 3. Tall and complex structures such as oil rigs, platforms and chimney stacks, present a danger for personnel. The use of remotely controlled aircraft to carry out surveys is increasing.
In the UK, the company standing flight permission from the CAA which allows certain types of flight with the UK airspace, but before it flies it has to check the airspace map to make sure there are no particular restrictions, for example near a military base, airport or place of environmental concern. In the rest of Europe, it has worked in Italy,
German, Holland and France for example, and again
tasks that manned systems cannot perform, either for safety or for economic reasons. RPAS are well suited for long duration monitoring tasks or risky flights into ash clouds. They can efficiently complement existing manned aircraft or satellites infrastructure used by governments in crisis management, border control or fire fighting. RPAS can also deliver profitable
commercial aerial services in various areas,
such as in precision agriculture and fisheries, power or gas line monitoring, infrastructure inspection, communications and broadcast services, wireless communication relay and satellite augmentation systems, natural resources monitoring, media and entertainment, digital mapping, land and wildlife management, air quality control and management. ●
Fig. 4. A close up of the flare.
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