Since their drone went on display at an agricultural exhibition show in Hannover in 2019, drone and urban air mobility services company Volocopter has been dropping titbits about their flagship cargo drone, the VoloDrone.

And, while there is still no VoloDrone on the horizon yet, the tests continue.

Volocopter has just announced that the VoloDrone completed another two-week test flight campaign, this time at the DLR National Experimental Test Centre for Unmanned Aircraft at Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport, Germany.

The final day for the series of tests was on Wednesday, and it included a public display of deconfliction test flight scenarios that fall under the CORUS-XUAM project’s Very Large Demonstration (VLD) endeavour.

Volocopter is part of the European Commission’s CORUS-XUAM consortium, which among other things is focussed on harmonising the digital Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) interfaces to allow new airspace users to safely be introduced into the existing airspace.

The project is being funded through the European Union’s initiative Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Joint Undertaking, under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

“The successful flight tests of the VoloDrone at Cochstedt bring this year’s CORUS-XUAM project to a close,” said Volocopter’s Chief Risk and Certification Officer, Oliver Reinhardt.

“Volocopter is pleased to have reliably conquered all the necessary ATM/UTM testing items with our passenger air taxi, cargo aircraft, and the VoloIQ, all to the highest levels of safety. Our team has proven throughout these tests that our aircraft, operations, and digital software can safely adapt to various test flight scenarios.

“To ultimately establish a robust UAM ecosystem, we will continue to test and improve the ATM/UTM interfaces beyond the testing sandbox, as well as improve communications with individual partners within each country’s ecosystem.”

This latest test flight featured the VoloDrone’s remotely piloted flights, and tested the drone’s capability to react to unforeseen circumstances and obstacles included in pre-determined flight routes.

While physical flights took place in Cochstedt, the simulated digital airspace were those of Frankfurt and London airports, which were scaled down accurately and mapped to fit the physical space of Cochstedt airfield.

These real-world use cases focused on exercises for yielding to priority traffic and changing flight speeds to ease traffic flow management.

“For the UAM industry to establish itself and scale up, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) like the VoloDrone and other new aircraft must be able to seamlessly fly among more established aircraft that occupy the same lower airspace – and do this around the globe,” the company said in a statement.

“Currently, ATM systems are not designed to handle the upsurge in aircraft volumes or the digitization of UAM. Harmonizing existing and new traffic management systems for brand-new aircraft integration will ensure efficient large-scale operations.

“This seamless transition requires strong collaboration in the UAM ecosystem, from both existing and new players in the field. Successfully completing this CORUS-XUAM test flight is another step toward UAM integration into the lower airspace as Volocopter strives for entry into commercial service by 2024 in major cities such as Paris and Singapore.

In a previous unforeseen circumstances trial, the VoloDrone’s flight path between Messe Frankfurt (trade show grounds) and Frankfurt Airport was diverted once the VoloIQ received an incoming signal from an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) aircraft’s priority landing at a hospital en route.

Another simulation in the UK highlighted the VoloDrone’s ability to decrease its flight speed to create space for a safe approach and take-off once it entered the congested airspace above busy London airports, for better air traffic flow management.

“In both instances, the digital interfaces of Volocopter’s VoloIQ and the U-Space Service Provider (USSP) worked together to successfully manage the VoloDrone’s flight path and speed, as well as priority-access vehicles and air traffic,” the company said.

“Ongoing testing has resulted in several improvements to Volocopter’s VoloDrone. The features of the new-and-improved cargo drone were revealed during this test campaign. They included the adoption of scalable aluminum rotor beams, lightweight and durable fiberglass housing, and overhauled fuselage design.”

Powered a massive eighteen rotors and able to stay in the air for 30 minutes, the VoloDrone is being prepared to deliver heavy cargo for the industries like construction and mining; and also for crop spraying.