Dufour Aerospace makes first uncrewed test flight in Sweden
Dufour Aerospace has conducted its first remotely-piloted fight in Sweden, supported by strategic partner Savback and the Västervik Drone Science Park, with its AeroMini10 subscale demonstration platform demonstrating “the capabilities of unmanned tilt-wing aircraft in general and the in-house flight control system in particular”.
Over the course of 12 automated flights, the smallest member of the Dufour Aerospace tilt-wing family allowed the team to collect “a lot of valuable experience” outside its home base of Switzerland, explained Dufour. It added that although the system is capable of BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) operations, these test slights were carried out within the pilots’ sight.
The Aero10Mini used in this campaign is a scaled-down version of the six metre wingspan Aero2, with the latter likened by its manufacturer to “the Swiss Army Knife of Drones”. Designed to be able to transport up to 40kg of payload over 400km, it is intended to fulfil missions such as the transportation of medical goods or critical cargo (through its nose-loading hatch), high resolution remote sensing, SAR or public safety applications.
Dufour has built three prototypes of the Aero2 to date and expects serial production of its hybric-electric craft to start in 2025. A further iteration, Aero3, is also being proposed to “respond to the requirements of both today’s helicopter operations and tomorrow’s AAM markets” with capacity for up to eight passengers on board.
