What-is-understood to be the world’s first successful international drone delivery mission under the management of an independent UTM system – certainly the world’s first over-sea international drone delivery under UTM control – has taken place across the Baltic with the flight of a drone taking off from Estonia and landing in Finland.
A Threod Systems Stream UAV took-off from Muraste in Estonia and landed 1:10 hours later in Torbacka, Finland, according to social media posts from project participants. The 90km flight includes flying the drone at approximately 4,500 ft AMSL under the management of a pre-operational flight information management system (FIMS) with an architecture capable of integrating existing commercial-off-the-shelf U-Space components.
The trial is part of the on-going SESAR U-Space Gulf of Finland (GOF) project which has the goal of building and demonstrating a FIMS capable of managing different live visual line of sight (VLOS) and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions simultaneously by competing tactical UAS traffic management service providers.
According to a post from project participant Involi: “BVdrone Oy put a FLARM (unit) into an eBeeX senseFLY drone, both showing in the air picture, which included also all manned ATCO traffic information… squawk 1201 identified Threod’s bird also to manned aviation”
GOF project participants include Altitude Angel, AirMap, Unifly, Frequentis, Estonian Air Navigation Servicesm (EANS), ANS Finland, Traficom, Torbacka Flyg Klubb, Eurocintrik, Telia, Robots Expert INVOLI, Threod Systems – Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Fleetonomy, Frequentis Comsoft GmbH, Robot Experts, VideoDrone Finland Oy, BVdrone Oy, Liikenne- ja viestintävirasto Traficom, Avartek, Cafa Tech, Hepta Airborne, Helsinki Police Department, Volocopter GmbH, Finnish Air Rescue Society, Eurocontrol and Telia.
According to SESAR the capabilities of the FIMS will be demonstrated in different live cases representing the most typical VLOS and BVLOS missions:
* International parcel delivery between Helsinki and Tallinn
* Dense urban drone fleet operations in Helsinki with Police intervention
* Dense urban drone fleet operations in Tallinn in controlled airspace
* 100km+ BVLOS multisensory inspection flights in forestry and utility inspection
* Co-operation with general aviation and recreational users at uncontrolled airport
* Maritime traffic surveillance combined with search-and-rescue over Gulf of Finland
* Drone Taxi flight from Helsinki-Vantaa airport to Helsinki.
