News
AIRlabs Future Conference 2025: Today and Tomorrow – Global Benchmarks for UAS-Applications
On December 9th, 2025, AIRlabs Austria invites you to the 6th AIRlabs Future Conference at Graz Airport. Under the motto ” Today and Tomorrow – Global Benchmarks for UAS-Applications”, we will look back on six years of pioneering research, strong partnerships, and unique innovations in the field of unmanned aviation – and take a joint look into the future of drone technologies and international collaboration. The conference will also highlight the successful years of AIRlabs Austria as an innovation laboratory – funded by the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility, and Infrastructure (BMIMI) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) – and take a forward-looking view beyond the funding period: What comes next after the completion of the program? Which new pathways are emerging, and what opportunities lie ahead for research, industry, and authorities[…]
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DroneVation & Defence25 – Working together for protection and security
We, AIRlabs Austria, were represented as exhibitors with the FFG Take Off project Sense & Avoid (S&A) at the first DroneVation & Defence in Vienna – also the first military-oriented event at which we were present. A particular highlight was our S&A poster presentation, which allowed us to illustrate the topic clearly and generate a great deal of interest. The positive response even led to Robin Deutsch, technical project manager at AIRlabs Austria and responsible for Sense & Avoid, being interviewed on site by Militär Aktuell. You can find the interview here: https://militaeraktuell.at/airlabs-bestehende-systeme-genuegen-nicht/ Together with our partners, we are working as consortium lead on this project to close the existing gap between the state of the art in sense-and-avoid systems and civil requirements – with the aim of developing a strategy for future […]
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To the Arctic with drones – AIRlabs Austria supported students in preparing for the Greenland expedition
Freezing temperatures, impressive glacial landscapes and unpredictable weather awaited the FHJ Arctic Expedition Team (AET) on their research trip to Sermilik in East Greenland, home to the Austrian research station run by the University of Graz. Together with lecturers from FH JOANNEUM, their ERASMUS partner university in Copenhagen and other international partners, the students set off for one of the most remote regions in the world. The goal: applied research under extreme conditions, with drones playing a central supporting role. To ensure that these drones could be used safely and efficiently, AIRlabs Austria thoroughly prepared the crew months ahead of departure with a tailor-made […]
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Review of the 17th Consortium Partner Meeting – this time with high-altitude flights
On the 3rd of July 2025, the 17th Consortium Partner Meeting (KPV) of AIRlabs Austria took place for the first time in the middle of one of our active test areas: in Frein an der Mürz, in the LO R9 Steinalpl flight area. Our project managers set off the day before to prepare the location, test the equipment and explore the surroundings. It quickly became clear that Frein an der Mürz offers more than just ideal conditions for drone testing. It wasn’t just the venue that made this event so special – the expanded participant field also contributed to the experience. In addition to long-standing consortium partners, we also welcomed external guests from research, business and […]
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7th AIRlabs Austria expert talk on SAIL III: Exchange at European level
Whether transporting blood samples, medical goods or laboratory samples with high urgency – medical drone missions are considered a prime example of highly complex BVLOS operations over urban areas. Such missions are unthinkable without a SAIL III authorisation: Flying in urban areas requires not only a robust operational concept but also tailored technical and organisational mitigation measures. The path to approval is complex – to date, only a few companies in Europe have taken on and successfully mastered this challenge. SAIL III therefore remains a demanding field that requires a pioneering spirit, close collaboration with authorities and in-depth regulatory expertise. These challenges, best practices and experiences were the central focus of AIRlabs Austria’s seventh expert talk. In the truest sense of the word, international representatives of the UAS community crossed borders to gather in Vienna and delve into the SAIL III Operational Framework and Practical Implementation. Guests from several European countries followed the invitation and contributed to an intensive […]
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Drones over the Elbe: AIRlabs at the European Network of U-Space Stakeholders Meeting in Hamburg
At the end of June, Hamburg reaffirmed its role as a key hub for the European drone ecosystem: the European Network of U-Space Stakeholders Meeting gathered international experts from authorities, research and industry to discuss key issues relating to the safe, reliable and sustainable integration of drones into European airspace. AIRlabs Austria Live demos, political perspectives and a 110-km (68-mile) flight through controlled airspace that sets new standards On June 24 – the day before the official […]
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With technology and heart: fawn rescue in St. Stefan im Rosental
An early summer morning in St. Stefan im Rosental. The air is cool, the grass still damp with dew. When our team arrives at 6.00 a.m., one thing is clear: today, every minute counts. That’s because with the first sunlight comes danger – for fawns lying in the fields, invisible to the naked eye. n the first few weeks of their lives, fawns are often placed and hidden well in the tall grass by their mothers. They lie there almost motionless – an innate protective behaviour against predators. However, it is precisely this behaviour that is their downfall as soon as agricultural machinery such as mowers are […]
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Drone Festival Anras
As part of the drone festival in Anras, it was not only visible – but could also be experienced hands-on: the NIST course. What looks like a playful drone manoeuvre at first glance is actually a sophisticated, practical training tool for situations where precision, an overview and good nerves are essential. AIRlabs Austria was on site together with FH JOANNEUM to not only present this training course, but also to demonstrate it live – and to show how important structured training opportunities are for […]
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Flying high: LO-R 12 Hochkar test area for UAV missions in an alpine environment
AIRlabs Austria expanded its portfolio at the beginning of 2025 with the new LO-R 12 Hochkar test area, an alpine test site with unique conditions for altitude and safety testing. The approximately 52.5 km² area is located north of Eisenerz in the municipality of Landl (Liezen district), on the border with Lower Austria in the Ybbstal Alps and can be reached from Graz in around two hours and from Vienna in just under three hours. The highest elevation, the Stangl, lies at 1,592 metres above sea level and therefore enables tests under realistic alpine operating and weather conditions. A variety of Take-off and Landing sites offer flexibility when planning test flights, for example: ‘Palfau’ is a flat meadow with easy access all year round. ‘Hasentrog’, a remote […]
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Driving drone innovation in our test areas for a safer future
On 15 April 2025, the first consortium partner meeting of the year was held online. In addition to exciting project presentations, the focus was also on the further development of the AIRlabs test areas. A face-to-face meeting is already being planned for the summer. Martin Blass from JOANNEUM RESEARCH / DIGITAL presented the results of the ‘UAS-NoiseCheck’ project to date, which is being carried out in collaboration with strong partners: AIRlabs Austria GmbH, Austro Control, twins GmbH, VOLARE GmbH, ViewCopter e.U. and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH. The aim is to develop a system for the objective, automated measurement of drone noise emissions – a key step towards future certification and approval procedures. The project combines acoustic, optical, GNSS-based and meteorological measurement data[…]
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