Thales and Systematic have launched the first long-range drone corridor in Pairs, France as part of the EU’s U-ELCOME project
The 20km-long corridor will see the very first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight in a semi-urban area operated by Parrot and managed by Systematic Hub Drones, using Thales’ digital tools.
The Parrot drone will be equipped with Thales’ ScaleFlyt Remote ID, a drone identification system, and will be tracked and controlled by Thales’ TopSky UAS solution
Drone operators having access to Thales ScaleFlyt Platform can request digital flight authorizations from Thales’ TopSky - UAS solution and the Systematic hub manages the presence of drones in the airspace corridor
Thales is leading the French cluster of the U-ELCOME R&D project, which aims to implement systems and procedures to validate U-space services, alongside Italian and Spanish clusters.
Systematic has appointed Frank Erb, Director of UAV Development (UTM) at Thales, as chairman of the UAV Hub. He said, “In the context of the U-ELCOME Project, Thales and its key partners EUROCONTROL and Systematic are pleased to announce the opening of the first long-range corridor in the Paris area and the first Beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) UAS flight in a semi-urban area in Bretigny-sur-Orge.
In December 2021, Thales, Systematic Paris-Region and EUROCONTROL opened the Centre d'Excellence Drones d'Ile-de-France (CEDIF) in Bretigny-sur-Orge which aims to offer a place to incubate, validate and industrialize all direct and indirect activities related to drones.
Thanks to its unique positioning, Thales will leverage its expertise and impact on the drone ecosystem in the Paris area bringing to:
"This first flight as part of the U-ELCOME project demonstrates the ability of Systematic Paris Region and Thales to accelerate innovation and deployment in the UAS Traffic Management industry, locally and internationally. We're taking off together and looking forward to future flights." Frank Erb, Director of UAV Development (UTM), Thales as Chairman of the UAV Hub.
The EU’s U-ELCOME project has 51 partners and aims to develop a path for drone operations on both a local and European level.