The last October 11th at the Ministry of Defence, in the presence of the Secretary of State for Defence and the General Secretary for Innovation, INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial) and CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial) signed an agreement for the creation of an Airborne Research Platform dedicated to the UAS Industry.
The areas of application of this new Centre that INTA intends to acquire will be flight testing of aeronautical equipment and systems, atmospheric research, remote sensing data collection, testing for the development, training, and education of flight and scientific crews, and qualification of new scientific instrumentation, among others.
The infrastructure is located in an area close to the experimentation center of El Arenosillo (CEDEA). It will have a 2km runaway and technical support facilities in a one-million-hectare test area. This emplacement is privileged due to the favorable meteorology, optronic systems (radar, lasers, electronic calculators, etc.), and communication tools for aeronautics application.
The installation will be handy for large-size drones and serve as a base for current and coming INTA aerial research platforms, which will have tele-detection sensors, so the center will also be helpful for researchers of different areas such as agriculture, geology, environment, among others.
The data derived from the platform shall be unique and complex in terms of format, measured variable, measurement technique, etc. Users will have the necessary support to exploit and interpret them, extracting useful information from them.
The total eligible budget of this project, around 27.500.000 euros, will be 100% financed by the CDTI, although at least 80% of it will be covered by the FEDER funds of the Programa Operativo Prurirregional de España (POPE) 2014-2020. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
The existence of these type of centres is essential for the development of the UAS/drones sector, where ALTER TECHNOLOGY participates actively offering strategical services focused in SAFETY, and providing its expertise in certification and testing to different national and international projects.
