ECA Group collaborates with the new Drone Cluster in Paris area

Friday, November 25 2016

ECA Group service team helped the Managing Officers of the new Drone Cluster – Base 217, established near Paris to set up rules of utilization for powerful drones within their facilities in civilian surroundings.

Unmanned Aerial vehicule IT180-120 used for environmental survey on base 217

ECA Group puts one of its unmmaned IT180-120 UAV system (gasoline version) at the disposal of the Officer team managing the new facilities dedicated to UAV activities. The base 217, established south of Paris, is a former Airforce base, to allow them to conduct a key environmental study.

This survey, mainly consist in acoustic tests in various flight conditions, and aims at defining acceptable rules of Aerial drone's use in order to ensure the tranquility and safety of the neighboring residents around Base 217.

The UAV activity foreseen here is expected to grow and attract new players, who will be operating airborne drones of a weight up to 25kg (E class). It's in this perspective that the long endurance, heavy payload capacity E-class IT180-120 appeared as the best candidate to support this survey.

The ECA Group Unmanned Aerial Vehicles solutions are available for purchase and for rent and are also used by the Service team for a large range of inspection and surveillance missions, aiming at exploring innovative ways to use the UAV technologies and its tremendous potential.

About the Bretigny Drone Cluster:

The former airforce base 217 located in Bretigny, south of Paris has unique and attractive assets for Companies operating in the UAV market, allowing them to perform development, testing, training and demonstration activities to their customers thanks to:

Runways
Indoor flying facilities
Real estate to accommodate offices
Permanent authorization from French civil flying authority (DGAC) to conduct unique aerial experiments with drones

Capitalizing on those assets, local and regional group of cities (e.g. the “Agglomération de Coeur Essonne” and the “Communauté de commune du Val d’Essonne), the French Government, technical Universities and local drone Companies decided to gather and establish a Cluster dedicated to Airborne Drones.

This creation is expected to contribute to the economic development of the Ile de France Region by meeting the needs of players of the rapidly growing UAV market.

IT180-120 during noise testing by and independent third party