General Electric [GE] yesterday said its Aviation unit has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to assess the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System, including the assessment of Next-Generation Trajectory-Based Operations.
A related agreement supported by the FAA includes cooperation between GE and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron [TXT], calling for test flights this year of the AAI Shadow Tactical UAS to demonstrate the ability to integrate GE’s certified flight management capability into existing United States military UAS as an enabler for operations in national airspace.
“Under this agreement, we will be accomplishing an aviation first by completing the research to facilitate flight of an Unmanned Aircraft System with an FAA certified, trajectory-based flight management system,” Chris Beaufait, president of Avionics for GE Aviation, said in a statement. “This [agreement] directly supports development of the FAA NextGen Air Traffic Management System.”
GE said it plans to work with its industry partners to commercialize a trajectory-based control system for UAS producers and operators.