Scott Nicholas
Lockheed Martin and its partner Canadian UAVs have jointly demonstrated the capacity of a Lockheed-built quadrotor unmanned aerial system to examine pipeline and well assets as part of a beyond-visual-line-of-sight test flight.
The team examined pipelines and wellheads at the Foremost Testing Range in Alberta, Canada, using an Indago 2 drone, Lockheed said Wednesday.
The Indago 2 unit used in the mission was equipped with a 30x optical zoom camera payload designed to capture images and videos.
John Molberg, business development lead for Lockheed’s CDL Systems business, said that previously conducted routine BLOS missions helped the company receive a compliance status with the Canadian transportation agency for the commercial airspace use of Indago 2.
“Canadian UAVs has been focused on creating an end-to-end paradigm in coordination with Transport Canada to conduct these operations outside of restricted military airspace,” said Canadian UAVs President Sean Greenwood.
