UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
Over the past few years, Project Wing has conducted thousands of flights to get our drone delivery technology ready for everyday use. In early 2016, we successfully completed our first drone deliveries to members of the public in an open field at Virginia Tech University. This fall we’ve been testing in a rural community on the border of the ACT and NSW and tackling an entirely different level of operational complexity: making deliveries directly to people’s yards. Continue reading
The California Air National Guard’s 163d Attack Wing operating out of March Air Reserve Base is using MQ-9 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), with full-motion video (optical and infra-red) and ground imaging Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capability, in support of CAL FIRE’s firefighting efforts in Northern California. SAR is able to see clearly though both clouds and smoke. Continue reading
Long range and endurance are capabilities not often associated with VTOL aircraft. But Aerovel’s unmanned Flexrotor, a unique miniature tailsitter, is cut from a different cloth. Last week a Flexrotor named for the sea nymph Actaea lifted off into a grey and rainy morning with 7.5 kg of fuel onboard. It transitioned from hover to wing-borne flight, and soldiered on through a showery day, a blustery night, and then another day in the breezy and unsettled air behind a cold front. Continue reading
SRC has been awarded a $12.7M contract to provide the Air Force with Counter-UAS systems to meet an urgent requirement to detect and defeat drones. SRC also received a $10M follow-on order from the Army for electronic warfare enhancements, as well as increased engineering and field service support to previously delivered C-UAS systems. Continue reading
The Swiss-based startup OneSky is developing and produces air traffic awareness systems to “safely and efficiently open the sky to all flying objects, as a universal and connected medium for businesses”. Continue reading
Egan Airships today presents PLIMP, a plummet-proof, plane-blimp hybrid UAS that can fly and hover while bringing advances in safety, visibility and mobility. PLIMP aircraft represent a brand new type of UAS that can manoeuvre and move quickly like fixed-wing aircraft, hover and vertically take off and land (VTOL) like a helicopter, and operate efficiently and safely like a blimp—all on a single platform. Continue reading
Scaled Composites has announced the rollout and first flight of its most recent project, experimental aircraft Model 401. Scaled worked with a proprietary customer to build two vehicles to demonstrate advanced, low-cost manufacturing techniques and to provide aircraft for research flight services to industry partners and the United States government. Continue reading
Electrical power lines pose a serious crash hazard to helicopters and other air-based vehicles, especially small aerial vehicles, such as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). This is because power lines are so widespread, hard to see, and strung at roughly the same height above the ground at which these aircraft fly. Continue reading