Automated Caravan Undergoes Flight Tests In Simulated Class B Airspace

Reliable Robotics has wrapped up tests demonstrating flights of its automated aircraft in simulated Class B airspace in Northern California.

Three test flights of the company’s modified Textron Cessna 208 Caravan turboprop took place over several hours on July 25 and Aug. 15 and were intended to demonstrate an uncrewed aircraft in the National Airspace System, Reliable Robotics says. The campaign is part of the FAA’s Urban Air Mobility Airspace Management Demonstration and was funded by the FAA through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The aircraft was flown from Reliable Robotics’ control center at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, with a onboard test pilot observing. The company shared aircraft telemetry through its control center with OneSky, an uncrewed traffic management software developer, which then transmitted the data to the FAA’s NextGen Integration & Evaluation Capability research lab.

“Reliable executed the aircraft test points via automation, including deconfliction from weather and aircraft with a remote pilot-in-command initiating the flight change for the aircraft,” says Davis Hackenberg, vice president of government partnerships. “The tests were scripted in a manner that did not require significant dynamic updates from the aircraft, but human [air traffic] controllers were in the loop to manage the full set of traffic in the corridor, both live and simulated.”

During the flight test, the company demonstrated rerouting and updating a flight plan to vector around weather, as well as slowing the aircraft to create more space between other aircraft in a congested corridor, he explains.

“Watching our system successfully operate in a live-test environment is exciting, and we are proud to help pave the way for future integration of large uncrewed aircraft,” says Hackenberg.

In July, the FAA formally approved the certification plan for Reliable Robotics’ continuous autopilot engagement system, which it intends to retrofit onto Caravans. Reliable Robotics is aiming to start automated cargo operations using the aircraft in the U.S.