The 700-gram Parrot Disco, which the company has been working on for the last two years, is a small fixed-wing consumer drone that looks like a model airplane. It can fly up to 45 minutes and reach speeds of just under 50 mph. The 1080p 14-megapixel camera at the front of the drone is the same one that Parrot used for its Bebop 2 quadcopter. Continue reading
Author Archives: The Editor
Intel Acquires Ascending Technologies
Intel has made yet another hardware acquisition to build up its business of integrating its processors and RealSense imaging technology into the next wave of connected devices beyond PCs. The company announced it has purchased Ascending Technologies, a Germany-based startup that makes small drones and the software used to fly them. Continue reading
FAA Sued In Federal Court Over Drone Registration Rules
The validity of the FAA’s new drone registry is under challenge in federal court. The hope for these hobby flyers is that if the challenge is successful, they – including children as young as 13 – won’t have to file their names and home addresses in a public database. Many hobby flyers have held off on registering their drones, concerned about the public availability of their information. Continue reading
General Atomics Gets $338M Air Force and Air National Guard Operations Contract
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, has been awarded a $338,231,976 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Predator (MQ1) and Reaper (MQ9) unmanned aerial systems contractor logistic support. Continue reading
Drones Can Avoid Collisions by Sharing Knowledge
The Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory is just one team of more than 130 working with NASA to solve how to manage drone traffic. The traffic-management system, which will be under development for the next few years, will help drones communicate with each other and avoid potential collisions. Continue reading
Russia Introduces Obligatory Drone Registration
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that obliges all private owners of unmanned aircraft weighing over 250 grams to register them with the Federal Air Transport Agency. Continue reading
Drone Camera Crashes Near Skier on Live TV
The world’s best Alpine skier was nearly taken out by a drone camera in the middle of a slalom run recently. Continue reading
Drone Closes Heathrow Airport Runway
A drone was the cause of Heathrow Airport’s runway closure at the weekend. It closed for several minutes after the drone was spotted in the airspace of Britain’s busiest airport. Continue reading