BCN Drone Center

Web: https://www.barcelonadronecenter.com/

Address: Moià, Barcelona

Contact: info@bcndronecenter.com

Who we are

BCN Drone Center is a privately owned civil UAS test center. Founded in 2014, it has hosted more than 3,000 users from over 90 different nationalities, making it an international benchmark for experimental testing, system evaluation and certification, and training of technical and operations personnel.

The center has a 5,000-acre segregated airspace and a 4,500-foot AMSL ceiling, allowing experimental flights at higher altitudes and BVLOS (beyond line-of-sight) operations to be conducted safely, thus facilitating the obtaining of operational authorizations for experimental systems.

In addition, the center has all the necessary infrastructure to carry out any R&D project and test program, including hangar, control station, workshop, electronics laboratory, office space… The facilities are complemented by the outdoor laboratory, consisting of 14 ha of land owned by the center where there are installed sensor calibration targets, with enough space to install any element necessary for the execution of the test flights.

BCN Drone Center is managed by CATUAV, a pioneer company in Europe in the civilian drone sector (founded in 2000), providing its extensive experience in the sector to advise all users of the center.

Location and airspace

The center has a 5,000-acre segregated airspace with a maximum ceiling of 4,500 feet AMSL, which allows for BVLOS and BRLOS flights. The airspace can be compartmentalized through a U-Space service internal to the center allowing multiple simultaneous operations. The area within the segregated space has a varied orography, including valleys, mountains, cliffs, rivers… and with a multitude of different areas, including agricultural areas, forests, urban and suburban areas, roads, highways, railways, high voltage pylons… This allows testing most of the drone applications in a real controlled environment.

Facilities

The BCN Drone Center has all the necessary facilities for test and trial flights:

• Building.

The center has a bioclimatic building built right next to the airfield, where the following facilities are available:

• • Control Station
  • Workshop with all necessary tools and spare parts.
  • Electronic Laboratory.
  • Training and events room with capacity for 60 people.
  • 3 multipurpose spaces, two of ⁵⁰ m2 and one of 75^m2.
  • Offices
  • Meeting room.
  • Kitchen and rest area, including an overnight area for overnight or long-term operations.

• Track

The center has two courts:

• • Fixed wing track: oriented to prevailing winds, 150m x 16m, grass surface.
  • VTOL runway: 50m x 20m, grass surface.

• Hangars

The center has two hangars, one of 77^m2 (11 x 7 m) and the other of 42^m2 (7 x 6 m).

• Aerial view

Aerial View:

Equipment

The BCN Drone Center has extensive equipment to facilitate flight tests and trials:

• Control Station

Enables control and monitoring of UAS throughout the airspace. Configurable to the user’s needs.

• Outdoor laboratory

The center has 14 hectares of its own land where any equipment necessary for experimentation can be installed. It currently has more than 50 control points, effective resolution panels and radiometric calibration, as well as several artificial targets for experimental validations, such as an overturned car in the forest for search and rescue simulations.

• Test equipment

The center has all the necessary equipment to carry out tests for conformity assessment according to EASA regulations.

• Proprietary U-Space system

The center has its own U-Space system that allows multiple simultaneous operations or simulation of operating concepts around the U-Space.

Services offered