EXPODRÓNICA and World ATM Congress host Combined Operation between Drones and Airplanes, the most Complex Demonstration in the World

For the first time in the world, drones are going to share active airport airspace with civil and military air traffic. They will also do so in a highly complex operation, combining 12 unmanned aircraft tests at Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome.

World ATM Congress, which hosts the drone sector for the first time at the Expodrónica Pavilion, will happily end its eighth edition tomorrow, 28 October, with the celebration of UAS ingenuity and innovation at Cuatro Vientos. For six hours tomorrow, the goal of integrated airspace will be a reality. “The sky of the future becomes true,” Isabel Buatas, director of Expodrónica, says. “It is closer than it might seem.”

World ATM Congress Event Director Ken Carlisle echoes Buatas’ optimism. “World ATM Congress welcomes the opportunities that come with the advent of drones and remotely piloted vehicles, a significant increase in commercial space launches, and a burgeoning advanced air mobility community,” he says. “We believe the future of aviation is enabled through community building, open communication, and collaboration.”

“The integration of the drone industry at the World ATM Congress, the benchmark event for innovation in the civil aviation industry, has made it possible to accelerate an irreversible process: the coexistence of drones and airplanes in the same airspace,” Buatas says. “This is an historic opportunity that offers not only new opportunities to the drone sector but also promotes knowledge-sharing between manned and unmanned aviation and makes this integration safe and efficient.”

“Bringing Expodrónica to World ATM Congress allows us to a new community of airspace users and stakeholders into the ATM dialogue and further deepens our partnership with Madrid, Spain’s aviation authority and industry, and European aerospace communities.”

12 flight operations, FPV races, and drone night show

The 12 flight operations at Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome will include flights of fixed-wing, a fixed rotary wing, multi-rotor and VTOL systems, with vertical take-off and landing (like helicopters) and horizontal flight (like airplanes). Flights will be carried out automatically, semiautomatically, and manually. “It is not only an historic demo flight because of its coexistence with manned air traffic, but it is also going to offer a complete range of solutions drones offer,” Buatas says. 

UMILES, Expodronica Pavilion sponsor, will organize an FPV drone race as well as a night light show where 100 drones will fly simultaneously.

ABZERO, CONNECT ROBOTICS, DJI / ELISTAIR, KRATTWORKS, EVERIS, PHOENIX WINGS, UAVWORKS, EUROPEAN FLYERS, STAREA and UMILES will be the companies participating in this flight demonstration. The Police of Madrid and the Police of Benidorm will also carry out flight demonstrations.

Tomorrow’s Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome demonstrations are a great example of the most innovative applications in the use of drones, including medical support and emergencies; logistics and transport; early fire detection; perimeter property security; surveillance of infrastructures such as oil and gas pipelines; and flight management systems with automatic location for package delivery. Remote flight demos will also be carried out, as well as spinning equipment - which allows constant power supply - and encapsulated drones to examine difficult-to-access areas.

The flight demos will take place at Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.