Aircraft
Bell and Xwing Complete NASA Unmanned Demo with APT 70
After demonstrating its detect-and-avoid capability on Bell's APT 70 cargo drone, Xwing is preparing to start flight trials in a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan.
As part of a NASA trial, Bell flew its APT 70 cargo-carrying eVTOL in Class B airspace in the Dallas-Fort Worth area using Xwing's detect and avoid technology. [Photo: Xwing/Bell]
As part of a NASA trial, Bell flew its APT 70 cargo-carrying eVTOL in Class B airspace in the Dallas-Fort Worth area using Xwing's detect and avoid technology. [Photo: Xwing/Bell]

Bell Textron this week demonstrated its Autonomous Pod Transport 70 (APT 70) vehicle as part of NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the National Airspace System program. The flight on September 28 was made using detect-and-avoid (DAA) hardware and software developed by autonomous technology specialist Xwing, which is separately advancing plans to certify a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft for unmanned operations.