Thales Australia and Underwood Innovation Labs are to open an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Centre of Excellence in Queensland.
The facility is intended to accelerate the development of a scalable ecosystem for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), as well as create highly skilled jobs in the region.
The Advanced Air Mobility Centre of Excellence (AAM COE) will provide access to indoor, virtual, and physical airspace to facilitate the safe design and testing of RPAS. It will align with the priorities set out by the Australian Government in its Aviation White Paper concerning the AAM sector.
The centre will operate as a membership-based, open-ecosystem model to provide organisations with access to technology resources.
The model for the AAM COE is inspired by a similar initiative in Paris, the Centre d’Excellence Drones Ile De France (CEDIF), which operates a 40km Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) airspace corridor. Supported by Thales, Eurocontrol, and Systematic, CEDIF serves as a platform for incubating and validating drone activities.
"Thales is thrilled to be the initial founding partner in establishing the forthcoming innovation ecosystem centred on a Centre of Excellence for AAM in Queensland, alongside Underwood Innovation Lab and the City of Logan," said Bobby Pavlickovski, head of uncrewed services at Thales Australia. "Our shared commitment to trust, innovation, and results will unite innovators in addressing everyday challenges, integrating drones and other advanced air mobility systems safely into our daily routines, and contributing to the decarbonisation of the future aviation industry."
Dr Paul Mathiesen, chief innovation officer of Underwood Innovation Labs, said, "Underwood Innovation Lab is delighted to be partnering with Thales Australia to establish and deliver this catalytic project for Queensland, which will propel the Advanced Air Mobility sector in the State and ultimately nationally."