On 17 and 18 March, what-is-understood-to-be the world’s largest demonstration of drones flying in a managed airspace is due to take place in Israel.
The Israel Innovation Authority, the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety and Ayalon Highways are due to demonstrate how 20 drones from five companies can be managed via an autonomous control system based at the Ayalon Highways Arial Control Center in Haifa.
The demonstration will be carried out as part of the NAAMA urban air mobility programme, managed by the three organisations and the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel, to create “a smart grid of national drones carrying payloads in an urban managed airspace.”
At the Haifa control centre about 300 drone flights per day will be simultaneously managed by an autonomous airspace control system.
Programme partners comprise: High-Lander Aviation Ltd. and Kando, Airwayz Drones Ltd; HarTek Technologies Ltd; F. T. Aerial Solutions Ltd; and Simplex Interactive Ltd.
The demonstration follows an earlier analysis of potential urban airspace management areas conducted by Ayalon and AGL Aviation (https://www.ayalonhw.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Airspace-Assessment-English.pdf
Last month, Israel successfully tested Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) civil drone flights in GPS denied environments using a special drone test zone in Yeruham as part of the NAAMA programme (https://www.unmannedairspace.info/uncategorized/israeli-pilot-programme-tests-drone-flights-in-gps-denied-environments-for-commercial-operations/)
(Image: Hadera City/shutterstock/ Arceffect Adi Bueno)
