42 to the failure of a motor, rendering the aircraft unable to avoid the storm and maintain safe flight. “The objective of the flight wasn’t to break records though, it was to demonstrate the platform and the payload capabilities to our customers, and to continue development and advance the maturity of our technology,” Tyler notes, He adds that it was also the first of any HAPS in both the US National Airspace system and International Class A airspace, commercial and military aircraft continuing to operate below the Z8 all the while. Two GCSs monitored the flight from Yuma to Belize, tracking its navigational path. This steered clear of populated areas, as per regulators’ wishes and to ensure the craft could be brought back down or terminated safely in the event of a system failure, although safety manoeuvres such as loitering patterns were triggered in areas such as the Yucatan coast to avoid some tropical storms that were building nearby. From GCSs to SOCs Inside the shipping container are two operator stations. Both link independently to the aircraft via ground data terminals, each one being designed with the capability to control up to four UAVs at once, although tests so far have maxed out at controlling two Zephyrs simultaneously from a single terminal. In practice, AALTO will not dedicate one GCS to more than four Zephyrs, to maintain full redundancy. If one operator station should break down, the other will be able to control all four aircraft. The GCS crews monitor air data, battery and power distribution data, along with video feeds from the wing cameras. Any control signals are sent over satcom either as short-burst data messages or streaming calls if higher data rates of 2.4 kbit/s are needed. Data encoders in AALTO’s flight controller are key to compressing the commands and the system-wide telemetry. Between the two operator stations is a mission planner console. While operators monitor and control the aircraft as needed in real time, the mission planner tracks and confers with the operators on parameters likely to affect the HAPS and mission in 3-7 days’ time. “Our future GCSs will evolve into a network of Strategic Ops Centres [SOCs], from which we’ll initially carry out stratospheric operations only, but as mentioned we’re looking into automating launches and landings to perform those remotely too,” Tyler says. “The SOCs will then be where we remotely monitor and hand over control of the Zephyrs, and we’ll set up SOCs in different time zones so that AALTO crews and interested parties can stay in their own time zones and work their regular shifts.” Payloads A payload controller board installed among the avionics near the fuselage routes command signals and power to the payloads, although as mentioned December/January 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Dossier | AALTO Zephyr 8 In future, AALTO will move from its GCS model to a worldwide network of strategic operating centres for monitoring and handing over Zephyr missions As well as taking optical imagery such as this, the Zephyr can provide direct-todevice 5G coverage equivalent to dozens or even hundreds of terrestrial 5G towers
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