An overwhelming number of commercial industries have begun to rely on drone technologies to enhance their performance.  Drones are being used in fields like agriculture, construction, inspections, emergency services, entertainment, delivery, and much more.  It is widely understood that the full potential of drones benefiting commercial industries has yet to be realized.  One main factor that is keeping drones from reaching their full potential is the FAA regulation that states all drones must be flown within visual line of sight of it’s operator.  Once drones are granted permission to fly BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight) we will be entering a whole new era of drone possibilities.

This is why so many drone, security, logistics, and aviation companies are investing in BVLOS research.  At the end of 2019, Lockheed Martin Canada announced that they are partnering up with Canadian UAVs to find a way to allow drones to fly BVLOS in actuality.  Lockheed Martin Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of the American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.  Lockheed Martin, with it’s headquarters in Bethesda, MD employees nearly 100,000 people world wide dedicated to advanced technologies, information security, aerospace, and defense.  Based out of Alberta, Canada, Canadian UAVs specializes in providing military grade unmanned aviation services.  As the company’s president, Sean Greenwood said, “UAVs are aircraft and introducing aircraft into the National Airspace is regulated, for good reason. UAVs still require a ‘human in the loop’ and that person should be well trained in ‘Aviation First’ skills, as having data is only useful if it’s repeatable, safe and legal. With over 100 years of aviation experience in-house, we service Canada and its unique environmental and regulatory requirements. Enjoy the benefits of this novel technology with the peace of mind that compliant, safe personnel are conducting the operations. We are the institutional aviation company your business needs to acquire pivotal, actionable data.”

Using the Indago Unmanned Systems, a drone system designed by Lockheed Martin, Canadian UAVs offers services for those in agriculture, inspections for oil, gas, pipelines, and confined spaces, and data acquisition.  For Canadian UAVs, BVLOS capabilities is the next logical step in the advancement of their business.  BVLOS will allow their drones to better perform inspections in hard to reach places, monitor vast agricultural fields, and beyond.  Part of Canadian UAVs program includes their ground based radar system called Sparrowhawk, a low cost high results device that provides situational awareness.  The development of Sparrowhawk allowed Canadian UAVs to begin testing BVLOS outside of restricted airspace in 2018.  Mr. Greenwood went on to say, “With Canadian UAVs’ advanced market position in BVLOS operations, we are seeing a lot of gaps in what the general market offers to solve fundamental technological issues in unmanned aviation.”  And that is where the partnership with Lockheed comes into play again.

Lockheed Martin Canada has developed revolutionary software that is capable of fully monitoring unmanned vehicles, whether in or out of line of sight.  In a statement released on Canadian UAVs website they explain, “Lockheed Martin Canada CDL Systems will provide integration support for the vehicle control station software called VCSi, a universal Ground Control System based on more than 1.5 million flight hours in military and commercial flight operations. Canadian UAVs will integrate their low-cost, ground-based radar, Sparrowhawk, into VCSi to provide users with a complete airspace picture of manned and unmanned aviation tracking with collision avoidance.”

Dustin Engen, business development manager at Lockheed Martin Canada CDL Systems explained that the main goal of this project is to create a complete picture of the environment for the safety of all aircraft.  “The biggest thing we want to emphasize,” he said, “is that we’re building a complete air space picture, which is what you really need to operate truly BVLOS.  You have to understand the complete airspace—and we mean everything up there whether it’s unmanned, man, pleasure, commercial or carry. We really see ourselves as enabling that next step.”  Engen went on to say, “The really valuable thing about this effort is that we can provide this without large requirements, like placing transmitters on drones. This solution simply requires a mobile control center and a radar that can potentially cover hundreds of kilometers radius-wise.”

With this collaboration in place it is possible that we will soon be seeing another surge in the use of drones.  While the idea of having BVLOS is enticing for anyone invested in the drone industry, safety is of paramount concern.  The world’s airspace is already overcrowded and complicated.  Adding unmanned vehicles into that congestion could prove disastrous.  The research and subsequent testing being preformed by Lockheed Martin Canada and Canadian UAVs is set to take what could be a logistical disaster and turn it into a safe working model for shared airspace.