Following the success of Project Triangle, the Royal Navy were keen to further explore the capabilities of Sulsa by embarking on a far more ambitious set of flight trials. Project Albatross saw Sulsa travel to the Southern Ocean on board the Royal Navy’s icebreaker, HMS Protector, with the aim of providing the ship with information on surrounding sea ice and assessing the system’s performance in harsh Antarctic conditions.
A total of four flights were conducted, two of which were EVLOS (extended visual line of sight), with Sulsa capturing useful footage that contributed to HMS Protector’s situational awareness. The trials showed that Sulsa’s performance was not significantly affected by the freezing temperatures, and that it was able to withstand ditching in the sea after each flight. However, live video feed and ability to recover to the ship were identified as capabilities that would improve the utility of the aircraft.
A short video was created showing footage from this project and can be viewed below. The on-board video was captured using an action camera intergrated in the nose of the airframe. This allowed high definition video of the flights to be recorded.