Auterion and GE Aviation will provide comprehensive integration of ground, cloud and airborne components for scalable UAV set to be commercially available in Q1 2020
GE Aviation has announced a teaming agreement with Hybrid Project to provide a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV designed for high endurance commercial applications at scale.
Flight testing on the UAV will commence this year with commercial availability targeted for the first quarter of 2020. The agreement enables Hybrid Project’s 35-pound hybrid-powered SuperVolo VTOL UAV with a full stack airborne computing hardware platform, flight and safety management and integration from GE Aviation and Auterion.
GE Aviation’s computing platform enables flight control and airborne computing power at the edge while maintaining an independent and authoritative safety controller. Auterion’s Enterprise PX4 operating system resides on the vehicle, in the cloud and the ground station. The integration is the result of an agreement announced earlier this year between GE Aviation and Auterion to provide all-in-one hardware and software platform for commercial drones.
All-in-one solution readily scales for commercial applications
Matt Vacanti, product leader, Avionics Systems for GE Aviation said: “The combination of Hybrid Project’s SuperVolo airframe, GE Aviation’s computing platform and Auterion’s software stack enables an all-in-one solution that readily scales for commercial applications. A highly integrated system is critical to achieving scalable commercial UAV operations.”
Hybrid Project’s SuperVolo has been designed from the ground up with an emphasis on endurance flight, ease of maintenance, and having a modular configuration. The combined system is comprised of technologies and services which have the capability to enable commercial operations in complex environments while meeting regulatory and mission outcomes.
“This collaboration, and the combined solution, will increase commercial operator flexibility, efficiency, and overall performance to a level not previously available in its class,” added Ryan Pope, co-founder of Hybrid Project.
