Great things can be achieved when teams collaborate and work towards specific goals. We would like to congratulate the following organisations on their amazing achievements and are proud and privileged to have played a part in their journey.
PRISMATIC LTD
BAE Systems’ Phasa-35 makes breakthrough stratospheric flight
A UK team has performed the first stratospheric flight of a new solar-powered drone using a new weather and turbulence modelling systems – potentially solving one of the key obstacles to realising the practical use of HAPS. TIM ROBINSON FRAeS reports.
On 24 June a BAE Systems Phasa-35 solar-powered high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) made a 24hr test flight out of Spaceport America, New Mexico, over the US Army White Sands Missile Range. With the callsign of AVRO352 (a callback to a somewhat famous legacy BAE company) it reached 66,000ft, in its first ever stratospheric flight before landing the following day.
For the full story follow the link … BAE Systems PHASA-35 makes breakthrough stratospheric flight
Hybrid Drones Ltd
As an innovative heavy-lift hybrid drone company building a unique platform, we needed a highly skilled, experienced and extremely reliable remote pilot. We found this in Dave from UAV Test Pilots.
For more information, follow the link … Hybrid Drones Ltd.
WINDRACERS LTD
The ULTRA (Unmanned Low-cost TRAnsport) platform
Drone delivery company Windracers has landed a third round of funding from the Future Flight challenge at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a government-backed organisation.
The London-based startup will use the investment to continue testing its drones and autopilot tech, as well as extending trials to more areas across Scotland.
For more information, follow the link … Windracers Ltd.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
I have known Paul Heckles for over a decade. The university has used his services for many years both for undergraduate teaching as well as unmanned systems research and development.
He has an extremely professional approach to his work which adds considerable value to the process of developing unmanned platforms and systems. It goes without saying that he is well known for his world class piloting skills which have, on many occasions, averted expensive platform loss. More importantly we have learnt the value of involving Paul early in design/project discussions in order to tap into his wealth of experience in many areas of aviation.
He has a fantastic "can-do" attitude in order to maximise the flight-testing time on the airfield. He is very generous with his equipment and resources. This is particularly the case with undergraduate projects where students might have equipment failure or other difficulties; Paul will typically step in with the loan of a receiver, servo, battery, fuel or starter motor etc.
Paul has an obvious passion for all forms of aviation and, combined with his delightful interpersonal skills, is able to inspire the younger generation.
I wholeheartedly support the vision around the UAV Test Pilots business. It is vital, in the design of new systems to think about the test schedule early in the project. Paul and his team can help to focus on testing (as part of good systems engineering best practice) at the concept design phase in order to minimise overall project risk.