Vigilant Aerospace Systems is happy to share our 2018 Year-in-Review video, below. The company had an outstanding year with numerous milestones for our products, programs and flights.
We are especially excited about the new beyond visual line-of-sight flights, NASA supersonic flights, ongoing FAA Integration Pilot Program work that we are pursuing, as well as our focus on safely integrating unmanned aircraft into the US national airspace.
Check out this 3 min. 40 second video.
From the video:
Vigilant Aerospace Systems reached several major milestones in 2018 in our mission to bring automatic detect-and-avoid and intelligent airspace management to the commercial drone industry using our FlightHorizon product.
In 2018, FlightHorizon was selected to provide detect-and-avoid and airspace safety to two of the FAA’s ten integration pilot program teams. The Integration Pilot Program is the FAA’s flagship program to test systems and develop standards for routine beyond visual line-of-sight flights and package delivery using drones. Vigilant Aerospace Systems is working with the Integration Pilot Program teams in North Dakota and Alaska.
This past year, FlightHorizon was used in the program to provide airspace monitoring for the first IPP drone flights over people at the FargoDome in Fargo, North Dakota during a large annual football tailgating party.
The flights were carried out by CNN and BotLink and observed by representatives from the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration.
In 2018, we also partnered with the Unmanned Systems Research Institute at Oklahoma State University to use FlightHorizon to monitor air traffic and track drones flying in a new 13-mile drone corridor in central Oklahoma that allows unmanned aircraft flight beyond the visual line-of-sight of the pilot.
The new corridor, approved under an FAA Certificate of Authorization, will allow Vigilant Aerospace Systems to demonstrate flight safety using FlightHorizon over much longer distances and continue to lead the industry in the development of automatic detect-and-avoid systems for drones.
Also, at the request of NASA, we developed a special version of FlightHorizon, called FlightHorizonX, to track supersonic aircraft and spacecraft. The FlightHorizonX system was used in 2018 to track and log NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology Project flights in California and Texas, testing new transponders and quiet supersonic booms. Soon, we also expect to be tracking spacecraft.
In September, we announced our partnership with the new DronePort Network and presented a seminar on “Obstacles to launching a droneport and how to overcome them” at the organization’s inaugural meeting. The meeting was attended by industry professionals from 10 states and 28 organizations.
We also joined the ASTM F38 committee, which is currently setting national standards for unmanned aircraft. We serve on two working groups side-by-side with the leading researchers, airspace regulators and current commercial technology leaders on setting standards for detect-and-avoid systems for the industry.
Overall, 2018 was an outstanding year for the Vigilant Aerospace team and we expect 2019 to be an exciting year with the official launch of FlightHorizon COMMANDER, participation in additional supersonic flights with FlightHorizonX, and support for many groundbreaking beyond visual line-of-sight flights throughout the US that will help to advance new regulations and push the entire commercial drone industry forward.
For more information on FlightHorizon or to schedule a demonstration, please visit www.VigilantAerospace.com.
And, be sure to follow us on Twitter @VigilantAero.
Related posts:
- “FlightHorizon Used by NASA and DLR in Flights over Germany for Airspace Safety, Flight Logging and Real-Time Flight Formation.” 10 February 2018.
- “FlightHorizon Selected by NASA Commercial Supersonic Technology Program 2018-2019 for Airspace Situational Awareness, Flight Logging.” 2 April 2018.
- “Vigilant Aerospace Developing FlightHorizonX for Tracking and Safety of Supersonic Aircraft and Spacecraft.” 15 April 2018.
- “Vigilant Aerospace to Provide FlightHorizon for Airspace Safety to Multiple FAA Unmanned Aircraft Integration Pilot Programs.” 9 May 2018.
- “New BVLOS Flights Anticipated as Vigilant Aerospace Teams Up with Two UAS Integration Pilot Program Participants.” 10 May 2018.
- “Vigilant Aerospace Joins ASTM Unmanned Aircraft Systems Committee.” 12 June 2018.
- “Droneport Network Holds First Meeting, Discusses Overcoming Common Obstacles to Launching New Programs.” 25 September 2018.
- “NASA Uses FlightHorizonX to Track Experimental Transponder for Supersonic Flights, New FAA Standards.” 25 September 2018.
- “North Dakota IPP Flights Over FargoDome Tailgate to Help Build Safety Case for Flights Over People.” 25 September 2018.
- “Vigilant Aerospace Uses FlightHorizon to Monitor Airspace for North Dakota UAS IPP Flight-Over-People with FAA Observation.” 1 October 2018.
- “FlightHorizonX Provides Airspace Monitoring, Data Logging for NASA Supersonic Flights Near Galveston.” 6 November 2018.
- “Vigilant Aerospace Provides Airspace Safety For First Drone Flight with New 13-mile Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight Authorization at Oklahoma State University.” 18 December 2018.