European technology company Sagem has conducted test flights of its Patroller to demonstrate safe use of drones in civilian airspace.

About 20 flights were conducted between late October and early November near the city of Toulouse, France, with the French air navigation and safety agency, DSNA, the laboratory run by the national civil aviation school ENAC, and Rockwell Collins France through what is known as the ODREA project.

ODREA stands for Operational Demonstration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems in European Airspace.

Sagem said the Patroller was equipped with its "see and avoid" anti-collision system, which combines an infrared optronic sensor, and an automatic risk collision estimation and avoidance flight path generation module. During the flight tests, this system was successfully operated using different conflict scenarios with a "dummy" aircraft provided by ENAC.

The tests also demonstrated Patroller's ability to carry out approaches to the Toulouse-Blagnac airport using civilian air traffic control procedures.

Sagem's Patroller is a long-endurance tactical unmanned aerial system with a flight ceiling of 20,000 feet.