Skyways has announced the successful completion of its work under Project ULTRA (UAS Logistics, Traffic, Response and Autonomy), a United States Department of Defense (DOD) initiative designed to advance beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone logistics.
Skyways completed a series of cargo drone flights between airports for the US military, demonstrating how uncrewed aerial systems can fly safely in controlled airspace.
The Project ULTRA demonstration called for medium-range BVLOS UAS flights between Grand Forks Air Force Base and Cavalier Space Force Station in North Dakota. Skyways completed 20 operational flights, consisting of 10 round trips with its V2 aircraft through the national airspace. For each round trip the aircraft traversed over 60 miles at Max Takeoff Weight carrying 23 lbs of load and 8 lbs of fuel, for a total of 230 pounds of cargo delivered to Cavalier.
“Over the course of 12 days, Skyways successfully completed all required flight demonstrations validating its ability to deliver meaningful payloads across significant distances in controlled airspace, with Skyways operating under FAA oversight, BVLOS and in active coordination with air traffic control,” the company said in a press release.
The most recent event marked the first customer demonstration of the V3 Block 1, flying BVLOS in the national airspace, which included an unplanned emergency landing that the Skyways flight test team managed successfully. Skyways also executed a temperature-controlled blood delivery.
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Image: Skyways image from a US Navy demonstration
