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Airbus Helicopters’ Redesigned VSR700 Unmanned Helicopter Makes Maiden Flight

By Brian Garrett-Glaser

Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

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Airbus Helicopters’ Redesigned VSR700 Unmanned Helicopter Makes Maiden Flight

Airbus Helicopters' VSR700 naval UAS makes its first flight, tethered to the ground in southern France. (Airbus Helicopters/Eric Raz)

Airbus Helicopters’ unmanned VSR700 demonstrator performed its first flight under a new configuration at a drone test center near Aix-en-Provence, taking off and landing several times while tethered to the ground. Its longest flight lasted about 10 minutes, according to the company. The VSR700 program, based on a modified Cabri G2 equipped for autonomous flight, was launched two years ago on a request from the French Navy. That prototype flew frequently in 2017, but Airbus has since redesigned the aircraft to…

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