Air Guard Technology Demonstrator Completes Phase One Testing

Piasecki Aircraft, an R&D company focusing on vertical lift aircraft technologies, has completed phase one flight testing of its Air Guard Technology Demonstrator from 6-8 September.

The Air Guard Technology Demonstrator is touted as "the world's first autonomous autogyro." The autogyro aircraft, developed and built by Piasecki, incorporates a six-degrees-of-freedom flight control model from Georgia Tech and an autonomy system from Geneva Aerospace.

The craft is controlled via the Unmanned Aerial System, a control system utilizing a natural-language voice command and response interface. With a hand-held "tablet" controller, a single operator might direct multiple autonomous vehicles.

The test protocol demonstrated the following features:

• Multiple Autonomous Flights with Automatic Mission Planning and Mission Management, Negotiated Interaction, Management by Exception, and High Level Mission Plan Inputs
• Multiple Waypoint Navigation with Dynamic In-Flight Mission Re-planning, Consisting of both Altitude and Airspeed Changes
• Racetrack and "Figure-8" Loiter Patterns
• Flight Controls Slaved to Sensor
• Remote Sensor Control from Ground Station/Tablet
• Persistent Stare Loitering - Vehicle Slaved to Sensor, Sensor Locked to Target
• Simulated Loss and In-flight Reconnect of Data Communications Link

Building on this successful flight test program, Piasecki will continue expanding the flight envelope of the system, incorporating Level V autonomous take-off and landing.

FMI: www.piasecki.com