US-Spanish solar powered aircraft developer Skydweller Aero has carried out successful flights of its initial aircraft autonomy and guidance, navigation and control (GNC) during a series of flight tests.

Based on data collected and evaluated in previous, open-loop demonstrations, Skydweller engineers demonstrated autonomous aircraft control and way-point navigation. The company has completed ten successful flights, which it says verifies the preliminary capabilities of its autonomous systems technology and its weather and climate data analysis.

During this round of testing, engineers evaluated all autopilot commands to verify inner-loop flying qualities at various altitudes, and successfully completed all autonomous way-point navigation test points. New communication links and various automatic take-off and landing sensors were installed and evaluated to ensure the aircraft is ready for its next evolution. The company’s meteorologists and flight test operations verified the company’s weather and climate forecasting models, enabling the creation of optimised flight paths.

Testing is scheduled to continue over the next several months, as the company continues aircraft transformation into an unmanned aerial system. The multi-national start-up will perform test flights dedicated to demonstrating autonomous take-off and landing prior to beginning fully autonomous and long-endurance flights. This series of tests were conducted in Albacete, Spain, the company’s provisional site for ground operations and flight demonstrations. 

“With continual flight testing, Skydweller has had the opportunity to successfully test critical hardware and software components in an iterative, dynamic process leading to this important milestone,” said CEO Dr. Robert Miller. “Recent accomplishments are accelerating development of the most reliable and safe aircraft autonomy.”

“These successful demonstrations prove the company’s ability to safely develop, test and integrate autonomous system capabilities on new and existing aircraft,” said Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer John Parkes.