Flying high: Aerosonde staff prepare to test the company’s Mark 4.7 small unmanned aircraft system.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A GLOBAL aerospace company has been using a little-known St Leonards airfield to test an unmanned aircraft system.
Aerosonde chief pilot Paul Herrmann said the Bellarine Peninsula airfield was ideal for the project.
The company was running tests several times a year, Mr Herrman said.
Federal Government’s Air-services Australia identified the airfield as “designated airspace” with “two danger zones” when testing was underway, he said.
“The site is sparsely populated and we have the access to fly away from populated areas immediately should the need arise,” Mr Hermann said.
“There is no legal requirement for people to stay out of the danger zones but it tells people what happens in that designated airspace.
“It’s pretty handy for us, based in Notting Hill, to get to when we need to do some testing.”
Mr Hermann said Aerosonde was using the testing as a dress rehearsal for a customer demonstration or to test a new payload or system.
The company had run demonstrations for the CFA and emergency services, he revealed.
“This is part of some cutting-edge engineering and development in the region.”
Aerosonde is part of American corporation Textron, the company behind Bell helicopters and Cessna aircraft.
The $10.5 billion company has about 32,000 employees in 25 countries.
Textron produces both military and civil aviation system products.
Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, Textron is ranked 233rd on the FORTUNE 500 list of largest US companies.
Mr Harmann said Aerosonde was using St Leonards to test its Mark 4.7 small unmanned aircraft system.
The Mark 4.7 was the first unmanned aircraft to penetrate the eye of a hurricane as part of a NASA and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program, he said.
“The Aerosonde aircraft flew a mission of more than 17 hours, a record 7.5 hours spent navigating Hurricane Noel’s eye and boundary layer.”
A recent Geelong regional airport feasibility study said the St Leonards airfield offered two crossing gravel runways of 700m and 650m.
The study said the danger zones extended above the airfield within a two nautical mile radius and out into Port Phillip Bay.
