Aurora Flight Sciences secured Switzerland as its first customer for its Centaur optionally-piloted aircraft (OPA), according a company statement issued recently.

The two entities finalized the agreement the week of Jan. 16, according to company spokeswoman Patricia Woodside.

The Centaur is a four-place, twin-engine ISR aircraft that can be flown three ways: like a normal aviation aircraft; an unmanned aircraft vehicle; or in a hybrid mode as a UAV, but with a crew on board. Flying it as a normal airplane allows it to maintain its Federal Aviation Administration certification and the full functionality of its Garmin G-1000 flight management system. It also allows it to be stored at any commercial or general aviation airport worldwide and deployed through controlled airspace to remote sites for unmanned usage without the need for large transport aircraft, ground support equipment or personnel.

The Centaur can also be converted to an unmanned aircraft using a completely separate UAV control system installed where the co-pilot usually sits. Aurora says conversion by a two-man team takes four hours. Finally, as a hybrid aircraft, the Centaur crew can control the device using an onboard control station and the human pilot can override the robotic flight control system at any time with both mechanical and electronic override options.

According to Aurora Chief Technical Officer and Vice President of Development Programs Tom Clancy, the company is delivering one Centaur to the Swiss, scheduled by the end of 2012. He would not comment on the price for one of the aircraft and also declined to comment on other nations Aurora was in negotiations with over the Centaur.

The Swiss have been pioneers with UAVs and issues relating to mixed-use airspace, Clancy said, because it shares borders with five countries. He said the country is looking to address access to United States national airspace, Swiss national airspace and global barriers for UAVs to share airspace with normal manned-aircraft traffic.

“Arma Swiss, within the Swiss DoD, has taken on this research goal as one of their missions and they selected the Centaur OPA as their platform of choice,” Clancy said in a telephone interview.

The Swiss will use the Centaur as a flying test bed for new sensors and “Sense & Avoid” equipment required to operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the United States’ entire National Air Space (NAS). Clancy said a fundamental problem with operating UAVs in normal manned airspace is safety.

“How do you set up protocols and rules of operation that ensure an equivalent level of safety to the existing manned systems,” Clancy said.

Development of the Centaur began in 2009, test flights began in 2010 and the first fully automatic takeoffs and landings started in 2011.

Aurora’s industry team for the Centaur includes Diamond Aircraft, Rockwell Collins [COL] and AAI, a division of Textron [TXT].