Falco EVO successfully completes maiden flight

SELEX Galileo has successfully performed the maiden flight of its latest member of the market leader Falco Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) family, dubbed FALCO EVO. The Falco EVO has a payload capacity of up to 100kg and an extended endurance of up 18 hours. It has flown its maiden flight and touched down after 40 minutes in the sky.

The Falco EVO is an upsize version of the SELEX Galileo's Falco UAS, which is now in service with 4 international customers and has delivered quite effective missions and proven extremely reliable in operation.

After a regular take off from Cheshnegirovo air base in Bulgaria in less than 200 metres of runway, the Falco EVO levelled up at 1500 ft (990ft agl) and has performed 3 fly bys of the nearby airport in order to test the UAS' flap configurations. After performing several landing approaches aimed at verifying the behaviour during landing, the FALCO EVO touched down smoothly and has returned to the hangar where it will await further trials including testing of its flight and mission envelopes.