Geneva Aerospace Successfully Completes Unmanned Test Flight

Carrollton, TX - Geneva Aerospace, Inc. successfully completed an unmanned test flight of a Long-EZ aircraft, outfitted with their command, control and communication (C3) solutions. Naval Air Systems Command and the United States Air Force UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) Battlelab are jointly supporting the project. The Long-EZ is a canard-controlled aircraft that features a wingspan of approximately 26 feet and weighs almost 1,000 pounds. It is an experimental aircraft similar to the VariEze, Berkut and Velocity, featuring an aerodynamic design allowing for maneuverability, efficiency and performance.

"This test demonstrated our proven avionics technologies, coupled with some minor modifications, can be applied to high performance aircraft. Eventually, these developing technologies will help us land large UAVs on naval ships autonomously," said Dave Lleras, program manager for Geneva. Actual test flight video is available for viewing at www.genaero.com.

The flight test took place at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground and consisted of testing all of Geneva's Variable Autonomy Control Systems (VACS) modes. "The transitions between radio control and autopilot were smooth, and the unmanned plane flew precisely to the pre-programmed coordinates," Lleras said. "We operated five modes, including remote directional response, waypoint guidance, go-to loiter, and park mode."

The vehicle was outfitted with Geneva's flightTEK, linkTEK, and missionTEK unmanned vehicle products. flightTEK is a flight control computer that features Geneva's patent-pending Variable Autonomy Control System (VACS) software. More than just an autopilot, flightTEK serves as a total mission management system. linkTEK is Geneva's network centric communication solution that blends both line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communications into a single data router that can handle data and video telemetry needs. missionTEK is a full-featured ground control station software product that offers an intuitive, easy to use interface giving a single operator the power to command and control multiple heterogeneous unmanned vehicles, with minimal training.

SOURCE: Geneva Aerospace