Diamond DA42 Autoland (Video)

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Diamond Aircraft, in collaboration with the University of Stuttgart, is developing an autonomous auto-land system for its DA42 aircraft, with successful test landings already demonstrated.
  • The auto-land system is designed to be highly redundant and requires no ground support, with plans to test an automatic takeoff feature soon.
  • The DA42 platform has also been used by Aurora Life Sciences for unmanned flight tests, marking the first time a large-scale fixed-wing aircraft was utilized at an FAA designated unmanned aircraft test site.
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Diamond Aircraft, as AVwebreported last week, has been working with the University of Stuttgart to develop an auto-land system for the DA42, and on Monday, they posted a video of one of the test landings. The system is highly redundant, and requires no ground support, the test engineers said. They also added that they plan to test an automatic takeoff feature later this month. The DA42 also has been used recently in unmanned flight tests, conducted by Aurora Life Sciences, in New York. Those flights were the first to utilize a large-scale fixed-wing aircraft in any of the FAA’s six designated unmanned aircraft test sites.

The video was posted on YouTube on Monday.

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