BAE Systems GA22 Gets First Birds Eye View

A new generation BAE Systems airship that could benefit the emergency services by remotely monitoring disasters such as floods and forest fires and help support major sporting events has successfully completed its first remotely piloted test flight at the Lindstrand Technologies test facility at Birkenhead, North West England.

The airship, designed for remote deployment on long endurance missions or as a communications relay station, undertook the initial phase of remotely piloted testing at the Lindstrand Technologies test facility in Birkenhead as the first step towards making the BAE Systems GA22 airship a fully unmanned autonomous system (UAS).

Richard Williams, Director of Civil Autonomous Systems at BAE Systems, said:

“This groundbreaking step in the development of our GA22 ideally positions us to take advantage of a growing range of new markets for the Company. Not only is it made of newer lighter material than any previous airship, but it’s significantly smaller than the majority of its competitors yet delivers the same high level of performance.

“Its small size means it’s easily transportable and does not need an airfield or runway to operate from, it can use existing hangars and needs only three ground operators to fly it which all adds up to some big cost savings for future customers.”

Technologies developed by BAE Systems for its HERTI UAS programme will be integrated into the GA22 for which a number of potential roles, ranging from support for major events and sporting occasions to the effective management of responses to floods, forest fires and other environmental crises, have been identified.The next stages in the development of GA22 are type certification of the remotely piloted vehicle then transition to a fully autonomous vehicle utilising existing BAE Systems autonomous technologies.

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