Swift021 flew for the first time over Japan.

Swift021 flew for the first time over Japan.

2019/12/9~13

Swift Engineering's first UAS featuring X-Blade Technology™ The Swift021 conducted its first test flight in Awaji City, Hyogo, Japan, alongside with Swift Xi Inc. team. "The Swift021 "Unmanned Air System (UAS) takes off and lands anywhere like a quad-rotor and transitions to efficient fixed-wing forward flight without additional launch and recovery equipment allowing it to vastly reduce operational time and cost.

There were ten flights in total and included: Autonomous Flight, Payload Autonomous Flight, Using infrared and UHD cameras, Photogrammetry and Active Follow Track tests.
On the last day of the tests, Awaji City Hall officers, NTT DoCoMo's representative and officers from the International Organization for Disaster Response, were invited to watch the demo.

"Even Drones are to be recognized as small aircraft; it is a crucial factor that every UAV mission should take place with proper flight planning, risk assessment, and control techniques, and Swift Xi team prioritize them cordially," says Swift Xi's COO (Chief Operating Officer), Dr. Nick Barua.

To increase those skills, Kazuki Murakami and Shotaro Nomura, members of our Survey and data Analysis Department went to Swift Engineering Inc. in San Clemente, California (Parent company, hereafter referred to as SEI) in November 2019 for about one month. They received an intensive Drone operating program training. This training program included safety management methods (flight planning and emergency response) and control techniques (rotor-wing aircraft, fixed-wing aircraft). The safety management method uses strict safety rules established by SEI. The SEI has personnel who have experience serving in the United States Marine Corps, US Navy established safety rules for flying aircraft.

In terms of operation technology, the Swift021 VTOL mechanism has the characteristics of both a rotary-wing aircraft (when take-off) and a fixed-wing aircraft (during flight), so it requires step-by-step training to learn.
During the training, Kazuki Murakami obtained the "FAA Part 107 UAS Certification". This qualification is required by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States to fly an aircraft with less than 25kg maximum take-off weight (MTOW).

Swift Xi Inc. obtained some of Hyogo prefectures tenders of pre-disaster maintenance survey projects in 2019 and strives to accomplish all. We will endeavor for safety management through continuous training and maximizing our skills to transform a two-pronged approach; PROACTIVE (preparing, maintaining control, and reducing exposure) & REACTIVE (saving lives by enhancing situational awareness).