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Proxy Aviation Completes First Successful Cooperative Flight Demonstration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for USAF

SkyRaider platform exceeds expectations in first operational demonstration

Germantown, Md. -- August 6, 2007 -- Proxy Aviation Systems, Inc., a company that develops fully autonomous, optionally piloted unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), announced today that it successfully completed a series of demonstrations of the cooperative flight capabilities of its SkyWatcher and SkyRaider unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), managed by its SkyForce Distributed Management System (DMS). The U.S. Air Force (USAF) contracted with Proxy to perform these tests under the operational control of the USAF UAV Battle Lab. The demonstration, called Cooperative Rules Based Reconnaissance Unmanned System (CRBRUS), was conducted at Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada from July 1–11, 2007.

CRBRUS marked the first successful demonstration of multiple UAVs performing fully autonomous cooperative flight. SkyWatcher and SkyRaider, with two simulated UAVs (each flown by its own onboard Virtual Pilot), communicated over a common mesh network, thus allowing one operator to manage all four UAVs. SkyForce’s network-centric software allowed the four aircraft to accomplish diverse group tactical goals with varying levels of operator control. SkyForce is designed to operate as many as 12 airborne UAVs and 20 ground nodes concurrently.

The cooperating UAV constellation, which carried FLIR Star Saphire III sensors on the live UAVs, successfully performed nine missions in nine days logging 49 flight hours in record-breaking temperatures. The USAF established the cooperative flight objectives, testing Proxy’s UAS in a series of complex and dynamic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and hunter-killer scenarios. Test criteria included target search, simulated weapons and multiple sensor employment, dynamic mission re-tasking, formation flying, collision avoidance and automatic take-off and landing. Notably, these demonstrations marked the first operational display of SkyRaider, which features retractable gear, a 1000-lb payload and the capacity to operate in high-density altitudes, among other advanced performance features.

Lt. Col. Kent Shin, Assistant for Security Policy and Programs for the Secretary of the Air Force and the Project Lead for CRBRUS, said, “The UAV Battle Lab and the Proxy team worked well together to successfully accomplish all the goals set for the Creech AFB demonstration. The Air Force is very pleased with the results and excited about the performance of Proxy's cooperative flight system under operationally realistic conditions."

SkyWatcher is designed for medium-endurance, low- and medium-altitude ISR missions, while SkyRaider is engineered for heavy-payload missions requiring the carriage and release of external stores. SkyForce DMS, which controls both SkyWatcher and SkyRaider, has the built-in intelligence to formulate entirely independent decisions based on changing mission criteria during flight without human intervention. This feature makes it unique from any UAV system on the market today.

“The CRBRUS program demonstrated the advantage of having complementary sensor types operate in concert from their ‘sweet spot’ altitude and flight pattern and merge the derived information. The combined effect was enhanced target validation and reduced kill-chain timeline. The demonstration results provide clear-cut evidence for both the effectiveness of this approach and the far-reaching potential it holds,” said Don Ryan, CEO, Proxy Aviation.

Proxy Aviation Systems will be exhibiting at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America 2007 Conference to be held August 6–9, 2007 at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. To find out more about Proxy’s UAS, please come out to Webster Field to see Proxy’s static display or visit Booth #837 at the Washington Convention Center.

About Proxy Aviation Systems
Proxy Aviation is led by a team of executives with more than 100 years of combined experience in the fields of aircraft and UAV development, manufacturing, systems integration and combat operation and is supported by a board of advisors comprised of retired flag officers from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. Proxy Aviation is dedicated to designing and manufacturing fully autonomous, optionally piloted UAS for use in ISR and other special missions. Proxy Aviation’s UAS addresses the long-endurance, medium-altitude, multi-payload requirements set forth by the U.S. military and the Department of Homeland Security. Founded in 2003 as a Delaware corporation, Proxy Aviation is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland. For more information, visit www.proxyaviation.com.

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