NASA Remotely Piloted Aircraft Demonstrates Flight Safety Experiment

NASA’s Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone (DROID), a small, remotely piloted research aircraft with a 10‑foot wingspan, makes a hard climbing right turn to avoid a steep rocky slope near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, May 31, 2012. The flight tests demonstrated that a remotely piloted aircraft, equipped with a smartphone running collision-avoidance software connected to the aircraft’s autopilot, could automatically avoid terrain below.

NASA’s Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone (DROID), a small, remotely piloted research aircraft with a 10‑foot wingspan, makes a hard climbing right turn to avoid a steep rocky slope near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, May 31, 2012. The flight tests demonstrated that a remotely piloted aircraft, equipped with a smartphone running collision-avoidance software connected to the aircraft’s autopilot, could automatically avoid terrain below.

Photographer TOM TSCHIDA
Location AFRC
NASA s Armstrong Flight Research CenterAFRCDale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratoryautomatic ground collision avoidance systemAuto GCASEdwards Air Force BaseCalifornia