Modification of a Commercial Fixed-Wing-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Mobile Radio for beyond Visual Line of Sight Operability

With the introduction of the new European Union Aviation Safety Agency regulations for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in January 2021 beyond visual line-of-sight operations will be possible. Since there are no legal requirements for this but only recommendations for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) hardware, a possible approach for this is presented in this paper. The system architecture used, and the modification of the fixed-wing UAV are discussed. For the UAV data link, a combination of a classical remote control from the model sport sector and fourth generation mobile radio was used. Finally, results of the test flights are presented.