The Italian

Alenia Aeronautica Alenia Aeronautica was an Italian aerospace company. Its subsidiaries included Alenia Aermacchi and Alenia Aeronavali. Alenia Aeronautica was also the part-owner of ATR, a joint venture with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). ...

Sky-Y is a self-financed

MALE Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

Unmanned air vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

for demonstration and research purpose; on 30 October 2007 it set a new European endurance record in the over 1000 kg category with a spotless eight-hour flight. Since 2016 manufacturer became

Leonardo-Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...

as Alenia Aermaccchi merged into the new Finmeccanica (definitively rebranded

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

since 2017).

Design and development

The roll-out of the Sky-Y was carried out by Alenia in June 2007, after 12 months of development, and it first flew at the Swedish test area of

Vidsel Vidsel () is a locality situated in Älvsbyn Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 533 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated about 900 km north of Stockholm, Sweden, in the Arctic Circle. History Perhaps its earliest history is as a ...

. As a testbed for key MALE UAV technologies the aircraft include a

heavy fuel "Heavy Fuel" is a song by British rock band Dire Straits from its 1991 album ''On Every Street''. The song was also released as a single and reached 1 on the US ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Mainstream Rock (chart), Album Rock Tracks char ...

engine of automotive derivation, a new night and day ATOL system (Autonomous take off and landing), a

collision avoidance In transportation, collision avoidance is the maintenance of systems and practices designed to prevent vehicles (such as aircraft, motor vehicles, ships, cranes and trains) from colliding with each other. Examples include: * Airborne collision avo ...

system and an advanced

data link A data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a transmitter and a recei ...

with surveillance sensor data integration. After a first test campaign conducted in order to explore the whole flight envelope and the engine performance the development has focused on data treatment, elaboration and fusion with the onboard

Galileo Avionica Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

EOS-45 IR cam, the

Selex Galileo Selex ES was a subsidiary of Finmeccanica S.p.A., active in the electronics and information technology business, based in Italy and the United Kingdom, UK, and formed in January 2013, following Finmeccanica's decision to combine its existing SE ...

SAR SAR or Sar may refer to: Places * Sar (river), Galicia, Spain * Sar, Bahrain, a residential district * Sar, Iran (disambiguation), several places in Iran * Sar, Tibet, Tibet Autonomous Region of China * Šar Mountains, in southeastern Europe ...

radar and the

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

datalink. The company is now looking towards the developing of a new bigger dual use MALE UAV derived from the Sky-Y experience, the Molynx.Alenia Aeronautica Products
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Specifications (Sky-Y)

References

External links

Product Official webpage

Leonardo official Structures webpage
{{Alenia aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles of Italy Medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles Sky-Y Twin-boom aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Diesel-engined aircraft 2000s Italian experimental aircraft Aircraft first flown in 2007