General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) has announced that on Sept. 26, the second MQ-9B SkyGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) (YBC02) aircraft completed its first flight.

The flight was conducted in Arizona at Laguna Army Airfield in Yuma Proving Grounds.

“We’re very pleased to have our second MQ-9B aircraft completed and flying,” says David R. Alexander, president, Aircraft Systems, GA-ASI. “MQ-9B development continues to move forward on schedule as we look forward to our first customer delivery in the early 2020s.”

With the second MQ-9B SkyGuardian, the GA-ASI program team has another aircraft to perform crucial development testing and demonstrations.

As part of MQ-9B’s roadmap to become the first RPA to be certified to fly in civil airspace, several capabilities such as lightning protection, an upgraded avionics and software suite, and a de-icing system have been included on the second MQ-9B SkyGuardian. These capabilities were not available when the first aircraft was completed in 2016.

Future testing for YBC02 includes further flight envelope expansion testing, testing of the Certified Redundant Control Module, flight controller updates, and testing of the Certifiable Ground Control Station (C-GCS).