Concern MANS, together with FGUP TsAGI and SRC N.E. Zhukovsky Institute, began work to create Russia's first digital flight platform for testing and certification of unmanned aircraft systems as part of the National Technological Initiative.

Earlier in December 2019, the Concern received a grant from the STI Project Support Fund to conduct research and development work as part of the project implementation. It is planned that the test site will open by 2021 at theOrlovkaairfield in the Tver Region, accredited by Rosaviation to conduct relevant tests, and can be subsequently replicated in other regions.

"More than 40 test sites are deployed all over the world for research, testing and certification activities for the creation of civil and dual-purpose unmanned aerial systems. In Russia, this project will be the first of its kind. It is planned to complete the work on the site by 2021," said the company's representative.

The project will allow Russia to carry out an accelerated assessment of the airworthiness of drones through a combination of full-scale and virtual tests. Today the certification process is mandatory for drones weighing more than 30 kg.

At the conceptual design stage, the Concern's specialists are preparing research work to create a regulatory framework for organizing and conducting UAS tests, justifying the shape of the UAS test site and its main technical solutions. In the course of developing the components of the development work, it is planned to create various technical facilities and complexes for solving radar and meteorological flight support tasks and test support facilities (a video surveillance complex, flying laboratories, etc.).

About the airfield "Orlovka

The Orlovka airfield is the testing ground of IMS Concern, where all of the enterprise's developments are tested. The airfield is equipped with two runways (asphalt and unpaved) and is officially certified for night starts. There is also a certified aviation training centre "Nebosvod-avia" operating at "Orlovka". The airfield is an accredited test laboratory for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the Russian Federation.

About Concern "MANS"

The International Air Navigation Systems Concern (IANS Concern) is a Russian innovative research and production company, one of the leaders in the development and implementation of advanced technologies and systems to ensure flight safety and efficiency, manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for civil aviation and special purpose aviation in Russia, as well as in the field of air navigation and meteorological support of flights.

The company was established over 9 years ago on the basis of the scientific potential of the Military Aviation Academy named after professor N.E.Zhukovsky. The staff includes 18 doctors and 64 candidates of science, among them 11 professors.

The "MANS" Concern has more than 45 Russian and international patents and certificates.

MANS" offers such innovative solutions in the field of air navigation as:

• equipping airfields and heliports with remote video surveillance (RVT) complexes, including Digital Tower technology to improve situational awareness and solve visual surveillance problems;
• equipping airfields and helicopter landing sites with ground traffic control and monitoring systems;
• meteorological support of flights - low-altitude wind shear warning systems (LLWAS);
• aircraft vortex wake detection systems (Wake Vortex) at the airport;
• A multi-functional air traffic control workstation to integrate information from all of the above solutions on a single touch-screen display.
• meteorological radar complex, designed for collection, processing and provision of information about different weather phenomena to meteorological services, civil and state aviation departments, as well as to other users. This complex can be both mobile and stationary.

Besides, the company has developed the technology of counteraction to UAVs (C-UAV), implemented solutions for UAVs based on hydrogen fuel cells and is working on the project of UAV implementation in the common airspace (UTM).

The MANS Concern has implemented a number of major projects on implementation of promising solutions that are practically unparalleled. Thus, the company has developed equipment for airports in Sochi, Baikonur, Minsk and other cities with a low-altitude wind shear warning system. In addition, the company has deployed remote video surveillance systems at Vnukovo Airport, installed aircraft vortex trace detection systems at Changi Airport in Singapore, and carried out other projects to supply equipment to cities in Russia, CIS countries and South-East Asia.

All equipment of "MANS" Concern is developed taking into account the standards and recommended practices of ICAO (SARPS), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), as well as EUROCAE and RTCA and successfully operated in different climatic conditions, including the equator and polar regions.