Thierry Dubois is a freelance writer specializing in helicopters, business aviation and aerospace technology. He earned a degree in fluid dynamics from an engineering school in Toulouse, France in the mid-1990s. At an unexpected crossroads, he found his first job in journalism. In 1997, he started working for French aerospace weekly Air &amp; Cosmos in Paris. This lasted until 2000, when he moved south to Lyons. He then became a freelancer, working for various aerospace publications and has been part of the AIN team since late 2000. In addition to writing about business aviation, Thierry shares responsibility for the rotorcraft section. He also is a regular on-site writer for AIN’s daily editions at international airshows such as the Paris, Farnborough, Dubai and Singapore shows, as well as at EBACE in Geneva.
In 2007, he won the Honeywell award for “Best systems or technology submission” at the Aerospace journalist of the year awards. In 2013, he won an Aerospace Media Award for the "Best Safety, Training &amp; Simulation Submission."
In other activities, Thierry moderates international conferences on aviation technology topics. Thierry is married and has three children, who seem to begin enjoying the mountains–as their parents do.

Writer

Thierry Dubois

Eurocopter performed a demonstration flight today with an “optionally piloted vehicle” (OPV) version of the EC145 light twin helicopter, aiming eventually at unmanned operations such as automated surveillance and cargo with any of its models. Secret flight-testing began early this month at an air force base in Istres, France.


Today’s public demonstration started with uploading a four-dimensional flight plan and an automatic takeoff. The EC145 then flew the traffic pattern via multiple waypoints. It performed a mid-route hover to deploy a load from the external sling. The ground station controller provided flight control inputs to orient the EC145 over the drop point and then released the load. The return route segment represented “a typical observation mission,” followed by an automatic landing.


According to Eurocopter, the demonstrator is a testbed EC145 with an enhanced dual-duplex four-axis autopilot and “the latest navigation systems.” In addition, the helicopter is fitted with a “plug-in” OPV avionics rack behind the pilot seats. The system included a failsafe feature–an automatic hover-to-land capability in case of major degradation.

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