UPDATE: LMT is successful in cross-continent demonstration

LMT has managed to successfully fly a drone from over a 3500 km distance. The drone was located in Latvia while the pilot was in Spain.

Here’s what Gints Jakovels, Innovation Lead at LMT, said after the demonstration:

With the successful drone flight that LMT performed yesterday, we’re now entering the final phase of the Comp4Drones project. We were able to pilot a drone from a more than 3500km distance, and our success is an important step towards validating our hypothesis and assumptions about mobile network availability in VLL airspace. 

Cellular connectivity will be crucial for scaling the use of UAVs in a safe and secure way. Since 5G will play a key role in enabling BVLOS flights and providing secure communication channels with UAVs, we’re now shifting our focus on 5G technologies and their performance in altitudes below 500 ft, where most UAVs will operate in the near future.