At the beginning of 2023, the feasibility study started to establish an Open Area Test Site (OATS) at Skellefteå Airport. The purpose of the project has been to investigate the possibility of establishing a test environment at an airport where technical tests on electromagnetic compatibility for electric aircraft, eVTOLs, drones, electrified powertrains and charging infrastructure can be carried out.
The project started with a background to the fact that the area of EMC at the airport was studied in the project “Test route for eVTOL" where different challenges with EMC and EMI at the airport were identified.
Testing electromagnetic emission in real-world conditions with different systems connected to their surroundings in different combinations is crucial to ensure which emission can occur, how strong it will be and at what frequencies.
The OATS project has been run by LTU together with Skellefteå City Airport, Katla Aero, Green Flight Academy and Skellefteå Science City. The division of labour into the different working packs has focused on:
At present, there are several test opportunities for EMC in open environments, but the project group has not identified any OATS in an airport environment, which makes the test environment unique in its kind and will be an important complement to the other test opportunities that are being built up through ELIS both at the airport and Skellefteå Droneport.
The work has been funded by the Swedish Energy Agency and will be published in their database under dnr P222-01249
Photo: Jonny Johansson, Project Manager for the OATS project.
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