Opening of the German Test Centre for Unmanned Flight at Grob Aircraft AG in Mattsies

MUNICH/TUSSENHAUSEN-MATTSIES   The state of Bavaria is looking to the technology of unmanned flight. At the opening of the UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) Test Centre at Grob Aircraft AG in Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Bavaria's Vice Minister for Economic Affairs Franz Josef Pschierer stated: “Unmanned aerial systems and their applications will be an integral part of aviation in the future. The opening of the Test Centre for Unmanned Flight here in the Allgäu region is a key milestone in the implementation of the Bavarian Aviation Strategy 2030, not only for Bavaria, but for all of Germany. The Test Centre unlocks new fields of activity in a dynamic industry. This will give Swabia yet another unique selling point as an aerospace location.”

The opening of the Test Centre for Unmanned Flight in Mattsies, Swabia, forms a basis for market-orientated promotion of research into UAS at a state and national level – and one with plenty of room for development. Above all, it is hoped that the facility will contribute to increasing acceptance of this new technology, tapping new fields of application and further breaking down barriers in approval law. Possible fields of application for unmanned flight include monitoring of industrial plants, filming, searching for missing persons, flights in agriculture and forestry, and civil surveillance tasks.
 
From 2007 to early 2013, the “Demonstration on the Topic of Unmanned Flight for Bavaria” programme provided funding of almost EUR 4 million from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs for the development of competencies in unmanned flight in a broad-based industrial consortium. The economic region of Augsburg is already home to various market leaders in the development, design and construction of aerial systems, employing around 20,000 people and achieving turnover of almost EUR 4 billion.