11th meeting of AIRlabs’s consortium members at the Graz Airport: a day full of inspiration and progress

The day began with getting to know each other and networking, accompanied by a delicious Styrian lunch, a pleasant opportunity to prepare for the exciting discussions and presentations of the afternoon.

The consortium partner meeting then began with a welcome from the Managing Director of Graz Airport and the AIRlabs management.

Mrs Wiedenhofer-Bornemann opened the official part of the event with a comprehensive status update on the legal and financial aspects of AIRlabs Austria. This included the extension of the project term and important changes to the funding agreement. Current financing and reporting topics for the third quarter of 2023 were also presented. A special focus was placed on the upcoming ordinary interim review of the FFG, which is planned for 2024 and emphasised the need for joint innovation projects.

Mr Brunner presented the status report on the AIRlabs flight test areas and the latest progress in infrastructure. The partners were given insights into the implementation status of the airspace restriction areas as well as exciting information on the successful radar acceptance in the LO-R 9 Steinalpl area. In addition, exciting flight missions with drones such as the Wingtra and Schiebel were presented, accompanied by innovations in the drone infrastructure, including the DJI M300 RTK drone, a multi-band RTK GNSS receiver and the innovative Droniq HOD4track technology.

Twins proudly presented their ground-breaking work in adapting the twinSCIENCE platform. Particularly exciting was the presentation of the third version of the twinFOLD SCIENCE, which impressed with a new power board, crash-proof landing legs, an improved GNSS antenna, a reset switch and a quick-change arm system.

The presentation by FH JOANNEUM offered fascinating insights into the potential of vertiports at airports. Using an example from Frankfurt am Main, it was shown how vertiports can help to transport business travellers directly to the financial district without detours via the main railway station. This triggered the important question and further discussion as to whether the business case drives the system architecture or whether the infrastructure enables new business cases.

A brief overview of the ‘Drone Risk Austria’ and ‘Drone Pilot’ projects from the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences gave us an insight into the future of drone safety and training. A survey on the skills required for four UAS job profiles was at the centre of the discussion.

The partnership between AIRlabs and Infineon was strengthened by the presentation of the EU-funded project ‘ADACORSA’. This project aims to integrate Frequentis’ UTM system on Infineon drones and AIRlabs played a key role in obtaining flight authorisations, flight area approvals and the creation of SORAs, ConOps and an ERP as well as communication with the ACG.

The event ended with an inspiring summary and an exciting outlook on the future of drone technology. The day’s discussions and presentations showed that drone technology continues to be a thriving and innovative industry in Austria and beyond.

The exclusive guided tour at Graz Airport allowed participants to experience the impressive infrastructure up close and get a comprehensive picture of the opportunities and challenges of drone use at an airport.