Windhover Labs, which describes itself as an “emerging leader in open and reliable drone software,” has announced the successful test flight of its integrated flight software stack and ground control software.

Based in League City, Texas, Windhover says that this milestone not only solidifies a “groundbreaking technical approach,” but it also marks the general availability of its software ecosystem to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), avionics manufacturers, and commercial customers.

The successful test flight also marks an important milestone in Windhover’s Phase II NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The company says that as an open ecosystem, its “aftermarket extensibility options” can create unlimited applications in a similar fashion to how iOS and Android users benefit from millions of independently designed and produced productivity tools.

Windhover adds that its command, control, communication, and information systems—built on the backbone of NASA's core Flight System (cFS) framework and to the standards commensurate with FAA certification—are “essential for advancing the drone market into safe and reliable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLoS) operations.”

“Windhover Labs is building upon the safety and reliability of NASA's core Flight System for the drone universe,” comments Michael Lowry of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames.

“NASA’s cFS is a proven and expandable software foundation for space missions, which can also provide an expandable software solution for Unmanned Aircraft Systems.”

According to Windhover, its software ecosystem will help unleash the potential of commercial applications for autonomous UAS. The ecosystem is designed for three main purposes— “1) to be integrated into drone hardware, 2) used for limitless commercial applications such as package delivery, precision agriculture, energy infrastructure inspection, and 3) a platform enabling drone service providers to build their own applications quickly and easily.”

“Our team has over 30 years developing human rated space flight software for NASA, NASA subcontractors, and commercial space,” says Mathew Benson, Co-Founder and Chief Engineer at Windhover Labs.

“We decided to apply our experience to the emerging commercial drone market and built our flight stack on proven, safety critical space flight software.”

Windhover’s software is designed for flying UAS beyond line of sight (BLOS), which is similar to operating spacecraft. The company says that “leveraging space flight software concepts of autonomy and safety as a foundation” is key to the safe expansion and integration of small UAS into low-altitude airspace.

Windhover’s ground software is built on “standard IT solutions” including HTML and JavaScript, which the company says makes extensibility and workforce adoptions “as easy as finding a good web developer.” In addition, the Windhover framework and autopilot are based on “open source solutions,” which makes adoption by the avionics industry a low cost option without sacrificing safety and reliability.