Aspen, Sensurion To Develop UAV Avionics

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Aspen Avionics and Sensurion Aerospace said this week they have entered a partnership to work together to create certified avionics for unmanned aerial vehicles. The partners said they plan to create FAA-certified autopilots, communications, navigation and surveillance systems, for small, medium and large aircraft.Aspen CEO John Uczekaj told AVweb on Wednesday the partnership is still in its early stages and no particular partners or products have been identified yet. “It’s anticipated that drones that operate beyond line of sight will need certified avionics for that mission, and the demand for that will occur,” he said. “For us this is a major growth market, with great opportunities for companies like ours.”

The companies also hope to develop products that can be used in autonomous VTOL aircraft. “That market is just developing,” Uczekaj said. “There’s a lot of things going on … we see a need for sophisticated avionics in that market.” The timeline is still unknown for that, he said, but he hopes to be working in that direction, and perhaps will be developing products within the next five years or so. “Any kind of innovation that occurs creates possibilities to feed that technology back into the GA market,” he said. “We’d all like to see that, and I think this will facilitate that.” Sensurion Aerospace, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, manufactures and sells small drones, and offers support services and training to drone operators. Aspen Avionics, based in Albuquerque, develops products for the general aviation market.

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