Textron Systems’ Aerosonde UAS completes first commercial-airspace vertiport-to-vertiport flight in Virginia

• Textron Systems’ Aerosonde UAS completed what it called the first commercial-airspace UAS flight using vertiports for takeoff and landing.
• Demonstration supported Virginia’s Advanced Air Mobility Smart Airspace program with MAAP at Virginia Tech, an FAA-designated UAS test site.
• Aerosonde Mk. 4.7 VTOL flew nearly 150 nautical miles from Blacksburg, Virginia, to Textron Systems’ Aerosonde Center of Excellence in Blackstone.
• Flight lasted about 2.5 hours, highlighting vertiport-to-vertiport operations for advanced air mobility research.

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