ASTRAEA reaches initial goals despite future uncertainty

Last month, the initial three year Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation & Assessment (ASTRAEA) project aimed at the ambitious target of opening the UK's airspace to regular civil UAV flights culminated in a five day synthetic environment experiment at ParcAberporth in west Wales. However, funding for a three year extension to the project has not yet been secured and a funding gap is looming endangering the progress.

The Chairman of the ASTRAEA steering group, BAE Systems' Simon Jewell, said that the trail was the pinnacle of the first three years in which the consortium, including academic, government and industry