Article Posted on : - Apr 14, 2014

The formation flight of nEUROn, Rafale and Falcon 7X. A Dassault photo

SAINT-CLOUD, FRANCE (BNS): French defence firm Dassault Aviation has achieved a rare feat by successfully conducting formation flight of its nEUROn combat drone, Rafale fighter aircraft and Falcon 7X business jet.

The formation flight was carried out on March 20.

"This was the first time in the world that a combat drone flew in formation with other aircraft.

"The entire operation lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes and took the patrol out over the Mediterranean to a range of several hundred kilometers," Dassault announced on April 12.

Organising a formation flight like this was a daunting challenge: for each manoeuvre in the planned sequence, aircraft from different holding points and with very different characteristics had to fly alongside each other in a confined space, the company said, adding that an additional challenge was being able to control a pilotless aircraft flying near the other manned aircraft.