Volatus Aerospace on September 20 signed a collaboration agreement with Accipiter Radar to facilitate and commercialize drone flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). This will allow Volatus to introduce drone solutions for a variety of aerial inspections in oil and gas pipeline, energy, railway, and arctic surveillance using remotely piloted aircraft operating beyond visual line of sight.

“Deconflicting drone operations with low-flying, crewed aircraft is an essential element for long range flight operations beyond visual line of sight. The use of Accipiter’s proven radar solutions will provide detect-and-alert / detect-and-avoid information needed to commercialize at scale,” said Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace.

Accipiter Radar is a North American company that develops, sells, and operates radar and sensor intelligence networks engineered to monitor the environment and characterize the behavior of targets such as small vessels, low flying aircraft, vehicles and birds, as well as distributed phenomenon such as weather, waves and snow/ice.

“The safe deployment of drones leveraging our well-established radar surveillance solutions will make a real difference both for industrial customers and our environment alike,” said Dr. Tim J. Nohara. President and CEO at Accipiter Radar Technologies.

“Every 1,000 miles of pipeline or right of way we inspect using a drone in place of a helicopter or light airplane, reduces the carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere by as much as 2,400 pounds, according to 8 Billion Trees, a company dedicated to offsetting carbon emissions,” said Danielle Gagne of Volatus. “Considering that there are approximately three-million miles of pipeline in North America that need to be inspected as often as once a week from the air to comply with regulation, the environmental impact is staggering.”

(Image: Volatus Aerospace Corp.)