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France permits UA flight out to 100km

Posted by Gary Mortimer on October 3, 2012 at 2:44am

delairtech.jpg?width=600

Yep you read it right, historic day for sUAS everywhere. Oh except in America ;-) 

French Civil Aviation Authority, the DGAC, awarded Delair-Tech the first authorisation ever issued to a UAS company in France, for a civil UAS to fly over 100 km in French airspace.

Delair-Tech is based in Toulouse and specialised in the design and manufacturing of long endurance mini-UAS.

Well done Delair-Tech

http://www.suasnews.com/2012/10/19001/flights-of-upto-100km-permitted-by-french-aviation-authorities/

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Comments

  • eric April 9, 2013 at 6:50am

    Hi everybody

    I wonder if outside DJI and mikrocopter, requests for approvals were made ​​to the  french DGAC approved for a multirotor (or fixed wing)  (S1, 2 or 2) in the environment opensource arduino (APM, CRIUS or other)
    thank you for information

    it can help me before contacting them.

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer October 4, 2012 at 11:16am

    Well that's hardly a requirement really, I can jump that and so can many many other people here. It would in fact be a very sensible standard to get things started. Especially if you only need a PPL, I know at least three ATPL's flying UA, I think just about all of the civilian's on contact in desert based locations are ATPL's. If all it takes is getting a PPL I think French flight schools will be busy with potential UA pilots.

  • Rodolphe Jobard October 4, 2012 at 11:05am

    Delair Tech did a good performance but one must not forget that this type of work scenario ( "S4" as defined by the French CAA) is only allowed to fully qualified PPL pilots with at least 100 hours of flight experience on full sized aircrafts + 20 hours on the UAS within the last 6 months. 

  • Peter Meister October 3, 2012 at 8:48am

    The frame looks like a standard glider, with enough batteries assuming custom design of the energy system it should be easy to hit 2hrs + with a glider frame. Glider RC pilots regularly do 3-4 hr flights where I live with minimum battery use. So assuming this frame utilizes thermals for its flight efficiency, and assuming the AP takes advantage of that, it should be possible and then some. 

  • Andrew Rabbitt October 3, 2012 at 7:44am

    With an empty weight of 1.7kg and a wingspan of 1.8m, I'd say it's stuffed full of batteries.  Nicely done though with a fair bit of tech on board, according to the blurb.

    Wayne Garris was doing some multi-hour flights a short while ago with his new Techpod prototype.

     

  • Daniel Clarke October 3, 2012 at 4:09am

    2 hour flight time? Do many diyers manage that?

This reply was deleted.