Unmanned Helicopter Reaches New Milestone

Saab AB, A new version of Skeldar, Saab’s unmanned helicopter, completed its first flight in February following major work to redesign it. 
 
Parallel to the development of the new demo version of Skeldar, Saab is participating in new international initiatives that will make it possible for unmanned vehicles to fly in civil airspace. 
 
The base platform that Skeldar is built on was first test flown about a year ago. With the experiences of this as a foundation, Saab has carried out a complete review and redesign of the unmanned helicopter. The helicopter that has just had test flights is a new version with the most of the components replaced with the intention of arriving at a product that meets Saab’s high quality requirements. 
 
“After a long and intensive period with ground tests and continuous adjustments we have now come to flying. Work is now continuing with the function lift required for us to implement fully autonomous flights. Then we should be able to demonstrate Skeldar for potential customers and other interested parties”, says Anders Carp, responsible for UAV operations at Saab. 
 
Developing an action plan and regulations for UAVs in civil airspace 
 
Saab is participating in a number of research and development projects with the purpose of developing reliable UAVs that can fly in civil airspace. Lately, two strategic projects with new interesting customers have been introduced: European Defence Agency (EDA) and Eurocontrol. 
 
For the EDA, Saab is part of a consortium which won the procurement for the project “UAV Insertion into General Air Traffic”. The consortium is made up of nearly all of the major aviation companies in Europe and works with the objective that unmanned vehicles should be able to fly in civil air space by 2015 at the latest. This is the first time that politicians have given clear support to a common European initiative to develop an action plan and regulations for UAVs in civil airspace. 
 
Using a simulated environment 
 
The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, Eurocontrol’s order is about using a simulated environment to show that it is possible for unmanned and manned vehicles to fly together in a controlled civil European airspace. Eurocontrol has the task of making European air traffic more efficient with retained flight safety. 
 
“This means that we have the opportunity of participating and having influence because it is part of Eurocontrol’s work to set guidelines for UAVs in civil air space. In the long term the project is strategically important for our investment in the UAV area”, says Anders Carp. 
 
Evaluating the collaboration between air traffic control and UAVs 
 
Previously Saab, together with the Swedish National Civil Aviation Authority, has carried out a number of flight simulations evaluating the collaboration between air traffic control and UAVs. 
 
“Usually these types of simulations are aimed at different areas; technology, human factors, aircraft or air traffic control. Instead we have taken an overall approach and simulated the entire chain and it has corresponded to Eurocontrol’s requirements”, states Anders Carp.