The awards acknowledge contributions to the advancement of aerospace. Leonardo’s two Bronze Team Medals highlight UK-first achievements in autonomous flight and collaborative uncrewed systems.
The Proteus Uncrewed Air System team received its bronze medal for designing, manufacturing and flying a 2,500kg fully autonomous aircraft in under three years. Designed and built at Leonardo’s Yeovil site, the technology demonstrator is being developed for the Royal Navy to explore how autonomous helicopters could operate alongside crewed aircraft.
Proteus completed its maiden flight at the WholeShip National Drone Hub in Cornwall earlier this year. Rather than being remotely piloted, it uses onboard software to operate its flying controls, with test pilots supervising from the ground. The programme is intended to help the Royal Navy understand how uncrewed aircraft could operate alongside crewed platforms as part of a future hybrid air wing.
The Sovereign Hunter team also received a second Bronze Team Medal – for demonstrating UK-sovereign distributed autonomous control across multiple uncrewed air systems. Working with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Volander, Applied AGI and Faculty, Leonardo delivered a UK-first decentralised swarm capability, combining autonomy, target recognition and safety-assured systems.
The project brings together specialist UK technologies to enable multiple aircraft to work collaboratively on a single operator-defined mission. It combines the specialist expertise of the SMEs with Leonardo’s systems integration and assurance capabilities.
The Proteus achievement also brought individual recognition for Joshua Hughes, who received the Young Persons Herbert Le Sueur Award for his contribution to achieving Proteus’s first flight. The Society’s citation recognised his initiative, technical ability and professionalism as an Avionic Systems Engineer.