With five missions, the Sky-Y, Alenia Aeronautica’s unmanned technological demonstrator, has completed its first series of tests in Italy.
With this test campaign, the Sky-Y has accumulated three test phases, two in Sweden and one in Italy. Thanks to the Permit To Fly granted by ENAC — Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (National Agency for the Civil Aviation) — the Sky-Y has accomplished the flight testing cycle in an area in the Puglia Region that was defined for this purpose. The test campaign in Italy of the Sky-Y, the only European-made unmanned vehicle to make flight tests and the only one equipped with European sensors and production systems, occurred place in March and has allowed the testing of some automatic functions of the ground surveillance mission systems — these are key elements to fully assess the operational capabilities of the production machines which will have in the future to be used for this role.
The tests campaign has also continued the tests on the EOST-45 electro-optical sensor of SELEX Galileo — started in Sweden in the Autumn of 2008 — and on the real-time data transmission via satellite. The satellite link made by Telespazio has been used to test real-time data and images transmission with the Civil Defence Agency, during missions which simulated ground surveillance, fire control, detection and monitoring of boats’ and crafts’ traffic and the signalling of possible shipwrecked persons. The tests recently completed in Italy have also concerned the functionalities of advanced management of the EOST-45 sensor, through an On Board Mission Computer (OBMC) provided with software developed by Alenia Aeronautica. Functionalities included automatic tracking of targets, automatic scan of predefined areas, definition of the geographical coordinates of the surface target under observation, on land, and also, for the first time, on sea. Thanks to these tests, Alenia Aeronautica consolidates its own continental leadership in the technological and operational testing of unmanned aircraft. Alenia’s UAV technological demonstrator’s flights so far have totaled 48 in number, of which 29 were accomplished by the Sky-X and 19 by the Sky-Y. Such successes have been made also thanks to the support and collaboration of other Finmeccanica companies that include SELEX Galileo and Telespazio.
