Unmanned Systems Group (UMS) has announced that its Discoverer II Remotely Piloted Air System has completed its maiden flight from the Karlskoga airfield in Sweden.
The five hour flight, which took place on 3 September 2012, has been deemed a success by the company, particularly in terms of the aircraft’s responsiveness and handling characteristics.
The production prototype was built at the UMS facility in Linköping and was flown by the UMS head of flight operations, Dave Cummins.
Cummins commented after the flight: ‘[The Discoverer II] was a delight to fly and we are all very pleased with this success story – just 5 months from design to first flight is a measure of teamwork and dedication that is seen within the UMS team. The flight was a great success and we are all very pleased.’
The Discoverer II is the largest RPAS in the UMS inventory and is capable of simultaneous carriage of a high-performance electro-optics turret and highly capable surveillance radar such as the Selex Galileo Sea Spray 5000 series.