Author Archives: The Editor

Matternet Starts Medical Drone Delivery Trials in North Carolina

Matternet, a Swiss company, began a three-year test programme of  its delivery drones under a program run by the N.C. Department of Transportation and authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration. The North Carolina program is one of 10 the FAA chose nationwide to try to determine how drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, can be put to commercial use in the United States. Continue reading

Asia’s First Fully Solar-Powered Quadcopter Drone

A team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has achieved a major step forward in stretching the capabilities of quadcopter drones by powering the flight solely by natural sunlight. A first in Asia, the current prototype has flown above 10 metres in test flights – higher than a typical three storey building – utilising solar power with no battery or other energy storage on board. Continue reading

NUAIR Alliance Partners with Unifly

Major General Marke F. “Hoot” Gibson (ret), chief executive officer of the NUAIR Alliance (left) signs partnership agreement with Marc Kegelaers, CEO of Unifly (right)

The Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR Alliance) and Griffiss International Airport announced a new partnership with Unifly, a European company with a unique software application that enables unmanned traffic management (UTM) systems to visualize and manage drone traffic in the airspace. The partnership will provide enhanced unmanned traffic management capabilities for the NY UAS Test Site 50-mile UTM Corridor currently being constructed. Continue reading

VTOL BVLoS Flight Testing Nears Completion in Brazil


FT SISTEMAS has successfully advanced in the Flight Testing campaign of its new design the FT-100FH Rotorcraft. The company is about to conclude the Visual-Line-of-Sight flight testing necessary to go further in the development, getting RBAC-E94 Beyond-Line-of-Sight flight authorization by ANAC, the Brazilian civil aviation authority. Continue reading