Thales at Dronex 2023: Sharing Skies
Enabling Safe and Secure Drone Operations
Thanks to Thales’ longstanding avionics heritage, we provide a broad range of technical solutions for drone manufacturers and operators. Solutions that support, at scale, increasingly complex and challenging drone operations.
The solutions we develop focus on ensuring operations are not only safe, but comply with current national and international legislation and regulations. That way, we can support the risk assessment methodology for all commercial drone applications and use-cases, including surveillance, delivery, monitoring, mapping, and maintenance, as well as many others.
On our stand this year, we’ll be demonstrating a range of cutting-edge capabilities. These include air traffic management solutions, plug-and-play and off-the-shelf avionics equipment to lower the cost and complexity for new entrants to the market, equipment to enable safe, secure drone flights and operations, and counter-UAS solutions to defend critical infrastructure from unwanted drones.
We’ll hear a keynote speech from Dave Drewitt, Head of Sales and Business Development, Flight Avionics, UK, on speeding up the development and implementation of key technologies, procedures, and processes to usher in a new generation of drone services.
We’ll also hear from Thales apprentice Zereh Pam, and graduates Bryn Jones and Lewis Ackroyd about their experience working on a project to stream real-time video footage from the Perlan 2 glider during its world record attempt for the highest-ever crewed, wing-borne flight this summer. What they’ve learned will help other airspace users, including drone operators, to better use data in their operations.
This year, we are demonstrating:
ScaleFlyt
As a major global actor in the aviation community, Thales is bringing a unique combination of domain expertise to the drone ecosystem, to transform the future of uncrewed aviation.
From flight avionics to UAV system design and operations, wireless communications systems, digital identity and cybersecurity, positioning and navigation-enabling satellite systems, we’re redefining what’s possible in the UAS sector.
To this end, we’ve created ScaleFlyt, a global product line enabling safe and secure drone operations at scale. ScaleFlyt provides a complete ecosystem of products, equipment, and services – all supported by ScaleFlyt digital platform – to drone operators, drone manufacturers, and drone service-users. ScaleFlyt is also a cohesive team of UAS enthusiasts and was built up from scratch, by our team of highly skilled software engineers. All with the aim of provide our customers with absolute assurance that their data can always be secured, thanks to Thales digital security expertise.
UAS100
The UAS100 long-range drone draws on Thales’s extensive expertise in aerospace technology, making it the ideal solution for a broad range of applications. These include coastal and border surveillance, law-enforcement security, linear infrastructure, windmill, and solar panel and pipeline inspections.
UAS100 meets the most stringent mission requirements, complying fully with general aviation BVLOS regulations. Its flight avionics combine the certified levels of flight safety and security Thales offers traditional aviation, with the compact, low-weight design needed for integrating on board small drones. If UAS100 is a game changer for long-range operations, it’s also thanks to the ability to operate over the most difficult terrain and high-risk urban areas.
Integrated airspace
To accelerate the full potential of drones in the future airspace, whilst maintaining safety and integration with traditional ATM, Thales supports ANSPs and territories in managing drone traffic. TopSky UAS offers a comprehensive suite of services, software and infrastructures to support safe integration of BVLOS flights, in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.
Our solution is an integrated, secure, and seamless UAS management platform that supports customers in areas such as airspace categorization (air ground risk assessment); registration; airspace awareness authorisation; conformance monitoring as well as surveillance and communication infrastructures. With proven technologies based on decades of air traffic management expertise. TopSky UAS is cyber secured, complying with aeronautical norms and standards, enabling drones to have reliable and safe access to the airspace.
Counter-UAS
Building on our experience and expertise in designing and manufacturing anti-drone systems for military organisations, we’re also developing advanced systems to protect against bad drones in the civil world.
EagleShield is an integrated and scalable nano, micro, mini, and small-drone countermeasures solution to protect and secure civil sites. It uses Aveillant’s Gamekeeper 3D holographic radar to detect, track, and classify objects, before intelligently fusing data through an interface to the UTM/ATM system that enables alerts to be acted on.
PARADE’s modular anti-drone deployable protection capability detects, classifies, and defeats hostile micro and mini-UAVs. It integrates scalable, multi-layer systems (sensors and effectors) into a smart command and control system.
Sustainability
Protecting the environment, taking climate change action, and preserving biodiversity are all firmly embedded within our company DNA. By taking action to reduce our footprint, sourcing energy-efficient opportunities and lowering consumption, we’re demonstrating our commitment to the planet.
Alongside our business behaviours, operations and people, we’re taking care of the earth so that it will continue to take care of us. At Thales, this is never an afterthought. We proactively seek ways to drive change in using environmentally friendly alternatives, reducing harm, preventing pollution, and increasing recycling.
Via sustainability framework and principles, teamed with our carbon net zero and emission goals, we are channelling new avenues through our technological expertise, tackling climate challenges and environmental impact with scalable solutions.
Connectivity
Complete trust in digital flight avionics is vital to meeting the complex challenges of aviation’s accelerating technological revolution. Across civil and military air platforms, manned and unmanned, digital data drives everything – and the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of every flight depends on it.
With interference-free connectivity and reliable, timely information, you can make fast decisions based on reliable insight, allow air crews to co-ordinate continuously with ground-based activities, and offer internet to passengers to enhance their in-flight experience.
Our global cybersecurity leadership and avionics capabilities deliver superior performance with minimal risk – gate to gate, nose to tail and air to ground. In fact, 40% of the world’s aerospace is managed by our systems. Our FlytLINK™ connectivity solutions keeps aircraft connected and safe in the air, anytime, anywhere. And regardless of supplier, our avionic systems are underpinned by world-leading cyber security. We’ll keep the people, objects and platforms that matter connected.
Innovation
Thales in the UK’s early research team (RTI) are developing several key technology building blocks to accelerate the introduction of new air mobility solutions in the current civil airspace. These include secure, resilient communications and a robust positioning solution that can operate in a denied GPS environment. It also includes Thales’ trusted AI to enable aircraft to detect and avoid objects autonomously – a major challenge for pilots as we move towards more congested airspace – and assured cyber resilience in this increasingly complex ecosystem.
Thales speakers at DroneX
Keynote speaker: Dave Drewitt
Sharing Skies – Enabling Safe and Secure Drone Operations
In his keynote, Dave will explore the challenge of how to speed up the development and implementation of key technologies, procedures, and processes the industry will need to usher in a new generation of exciting drone services. All at a scale that makes economic sense. And all in a way that’s safe, secure and, of course, mitigates the potential for maliciously operated drones to negatively impact society.
Panel speakers:
Zereh Pam, Bryn Jones, Lewis Ackroyd
Viewing the Stratosphere – A Graduate’s Perspective
A team of graduates and apprentices from Thales will share their perspectives and lessons learned from working on an innovative project to stream real-time video footage from the Perlan 2 glider during its world record attempt for the highest-ever crewed, wing-borne flight this summer. The team helped developed a connectivity demonstrator that was mounted in the glider as it soared into the stratosphere aiming to reach over 90,000 ft.
