Schiebel Camcopter®S-100 Make World’s First Full-Scale Offshore UAV Flight

Schiebel, together with partner Nordic Unmanned,successfully demonstrated to Norwegian energy company Equinor the cargo delivery capability of its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) CAMCOPTER® S-100 to offshore platform Troll A.

This is a world’s first in terms of full-scale offshore UAV delivery from shore to an active oil and gas installation, the Vienna-based company said Aug 28.

The exercise simulated the scenario of an urgent requirement for specific essential spare parts at the gas production platform Troll A. The CAMCOPTER® S-100 successfully carried out the long-range delivery flight from Mongstad, where the spare parts were 3D-printed, to the offshore platform Troll Alocated in the North Sea.

The unmanned delivery distance was 100 km (55 nm). After the UAV supplied the spare parts, it carried out a close inspection around the platform before it headed back to Mongstad.

The flight trials also included a successful Search and Rescue (SAR) mission, where a “man over board” dummy was quickly located by the UAV, transmitting the positioning data and live images using the L3 Harris Wescam real-time Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) camera and an Automatic Identification System (AIS).

Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group, said: “This was the perfect trial to show off the exceptional maritime capabilities of the S-100for the oil and gas industry. We have extensive experience in long-range unmanned flights, especially in the maritime domain and under adverse weather conditions.

The S-100 was able to show off its outstanding capabilities and we have proven once again that the S-100 UAV is the superior choice.”

Founded in 1951, the Vienna-based Schiebel Group focuses on the development, testing and production of state-of-the-art mine detection equipment and the revolutionary CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS).

Certified to meet AS/EN 9100 standards, Schiebel has built an international reputation for producing quality defence and humanitarian products, which are backed by exceptional after-sales service and support.

With headquarters in Vienna (Austria), Schiebel now maintains production facilities in Wiener Neustadt (Austria) and Abu Dhabi (UAE), as well as offices in Washington, DC (USA) and Shoalhaven (Australia).

Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) is an operationally proven capability for military and civilian applications. The Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS requires no prepared area or supporting equipmentto enable launch and recovery.

It operates by day and by night, under adverse weather conditions, with a beyond line-of-sight capability out to 200 km / 108 nm, over land and sea. Its carbon fiber and titanium fuselage provides capacity for a wide range of payload/endurance combinations up to a service ceiling of 5,500 m / 18,000 ft. In a typical configuration, the CAMCOPTER® S-100 carries a 34-kg / 75-lbs payload up to 10 hours and is powered with AVGas orJP-5 heavy fuel.

High-definition payload imagery is transmitted to the control station in real time. In addition to its standard GPS waypoint or manual navigation, the S-100 can successfully operate in environments where GPS is not available, with missions planned and controlled via a simple point-and-click graphical user interface. The high-tech unmanned helicopter is backed by Schiebel’s excellent customer support and training services.

Nordic Unmanned delivers comprehensive data solutions through industry leading expertise, to assist both public and private customers in the transition to unmanned technology. The focus is to support demanding clients by collecting time-critical data with the use of UAV. Founded in 2014, the company has offices in Stavanger, Oslo, and Frankfurt, and has quickly become one of Europe’s leading UAV operators with operations across the continent.The company is ISO 9001-2015 certified by DNV-GL as a UAV and sensor operator. – shp/mgm