Drone Validates Airport Navaids in Finland

A drone has been used to validate airport navaids and lighting in Finland. A CanardDrone, operated with Unifly’s unmanned aerial systems traffic management (UTM) software in cooperation with ANS Finland, conducted six 40-minute inspection batches of the ILS and PAPI systems at the Pori airport in May. The demonstration was conducted over the course of 13 hours during normal air traffic control operating hours mixing both air traffic management and UTM operations.

In one instance, a CanardDrone performed a PAPI system verification in 5 minutes, 35 seconds, during a 10-minute window provided by ATC. The operation coordinated ATM and UTM functions and allowed the drones to operate between civil and military flights without a Notam request. Via the Unifly software, air traffic controllers had full situational awareness of all drone flights in the demonstration and handled them concurrent with manned aviation.

“The air traffic controller was able to confidently operate both manned and unmanned aviation in a flexible, efficient, and safe manner,” said Ronni Winkler Ostergaard, Unifly regional manager. CanardDrones COO Rafael Aguado characterized the demonstration as “fast, safe, and coordinated.” Spain-based CanardDrones builds vehicles capable of calibrating, validating, and inspecting airport navaids. It receives support from the European Space Agency.