Alenia Aermacchi Sky-X

Alenia Aeronautica

Industry	Aerospace
Headquarters	Italy
Products	Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including Sky-X

This article is about an aircraft. For Sky X, the internet television service in Austria, see Sky Q § Sky Q over internet.

The Sky-X, developed by Alenia Aeronautica, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed and funded independently for experimental and research objectives. On May 29, 2005, it achieved a milestone by becoming the first European UAV exceeding 1000 kilograms to complete a successful flight.

Design and development

Alenia introduced the Sky-X in May 2003, and following an 18-month development period, the UAV conducted its maiden flight at the Swedish testing grounds in Vidsel.

Initial evaluations involved ground-based control to assess the full flight envelope. Subsequently, efforts concentrated on advancing autonomous flight capabilities, particularly focusing on the ATOL (Assisted Take-Off and Landing) system, collision avoidance mechanisms, precise autonomous navigation, autonomous landing with visual guidance, attack functionalities, and coordinated autonomous formation flying. By 2008, the Sky-X successfully demonstrated its ability to perform join-up maneuvers essential for in-flight refueling operations alongside an Alenia C-27J aircraft.

Leveraging the innovations developed during the Sky-X project, Alenia Aeronautica became a significant participant in the Dassault nEUROn European program starting in 2005, contributing substantially to its development efforts.

External links

• Official Alenia Aeronautica webpage