NASA’s unmanned aircraft conducts first successful flight in public airspace

For the first time ever, NASA has successfully flown an aircraft with no pilot on board and that too in public space without a chase aircraft.

NASA’s remotely-piloted aircraft named ‘Ikhana’ flew successfully in public airspace for the first time ever without even a safety chase aircraft, which usually follows the unmanned drone while it flies in those parts of skies used by commercial and private pilots.

This time, the Federal Aviation Administration allowed NASA the waiver to test out numerous key technologies that NASA has been manufacturing for years to detect and avoid other aircraft. The agency wanted to test if the drone could fly on its own among other aircraft, and the results were positive, reported Engadget.

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The Ikhana looks similar to a full-sized airplane and was remotely operated by a pilot on the ground. The plane is equipped with several high-tech systems through which it navigates and avoid mid-air collisions or close calls. As per CNET, among the detect-and-avoid technologies are an airborne radar system and a satellite position system that broadcasts the plane’s position to other planes.

Flying at an altitude of 20,000ft, the Ikhana took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California making its way through airspace shared with commercial flights, later coming down to a lower altitude shared with general aviation flights. This was in order to confirm that its remote pilot was able to navigate and coordinate with ground operations just like he was in the drone’s cockpit.

Furthermore, because the test was successful, it paves forward way for made use of drone for other civil service purposes including carrying out search and rescue operations or fighting forest fires. “This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private pilots,” said NASA.