SkeyDrone has announced that it operated a fully automated drone flight at DronePort in Sint-Truiden in Belgium with the drone being out of the pilot’s line of sight. The objective of this flight, on April 10, was to conduct a remote perimeter inspection from the SkeyDrone operations centre in Steenokkerzeel. The test was a collaboration between Brussels Airport, Airport Intelligence, SkeyDrone, and DronePort, organised as part of the ‘U-space in Practice’ event in light of Belgium’s presidency of the European Union.
The use case involved an automated perimeter inspection at the active airport premises at DronePort, using a ‘drone in a box’ (DiaB) platform to conduct a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight. In this case, the drone’s camera was operated approximately 60 km away, at SkeyDrone in Steenokkerzeel.
The flight was supported by a range of digital services established by DronePort in collaboration with SkeyDrone, allowing the airport to remain fully operational. This included detection of all air traffic near the airport – both drones and crewed aircraft – and the use of a flight management system.
SkeyDrone says similar flights will follow to further develop and implement the systems.
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