• Both the firms have joined the NBEC partnership, along with the founding partners Blue Bear Research Systems and Cranfield University
   
• Thales is fully committed towards unlocking the potential of digital aviation in the UK and across the globe

Reports suggest that Vodafone and Thales have recently joined the National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC) partnership, along with the founding partners Blue Bear Research Systems and Cranfield University. Apparently, as the corridor continues to be developed, the addition of these two industry leaders is a remarkable boost to the abilities of NBEC.

Further from the reports, this project is quite closely aligned with the Aerospace Sector Deal, which is a government initiative for driving industry collaboration to reinforce the future of mobility in the economy of Britain. It would also determine the real-world impacts of digital transformation for jointly developing and exploiting innovations between and within airports, airspace management, aircraft and digitized airline operations that are already in play.

Thales has indicated that it is fully committed towards unlocking the potential of digital aviation in the UK and across the globe, developing the existing partnership between the Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC) and Thales. The NBEC partnership gives life to Thales’ efforts to securely and safely integrate unmanned systems into UK airspace, by integrating the airspace situation in the software solution developed for NBEC.

This NBEC flight corridor would seemingly be utilized for demonstrating how 4G and 5G mobile technology could be used for identifying and tracking a drone’s location in real time, crucial for ensuring the safety of autonomous beyond line of sight flights. This would complement the existing satellite-based location systems, that deliver accurate location estimates but could be open to compromise and jamming.

Mobile connectivity on a drone would purportedly offer a secondary feed of information, based on location, enabling a more trusted and robust picture of the location of drone. Capabilities similar to these would be the key to air traffic management systems needed for allowing the safe and routine flying of commercial drones in the coming future.