UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
A recent breakthrough in precise aircraft control with implications for both manned and unmanned flight is highlighted in a brief video which can be viewed below. The full paper describing this Apprenticeship Learning control method and its integration into a comprehensive design and analysis suite is available here.
Abstract of Paper:
Russia has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying Israeli unmanned aircraft systems (and to acquire technology and components for joint UAS production. But at present these UAS are no more than expensive flying TV-cameras, the targeting information they produce is mostly useless, since there are no precise GLONASS (GPS)-targeted weapon systems to use it.
Proteus Approaches Global Hawk
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center have just released pictures of a key risk reduction flight test in which Northrop Grumman’s Proteus test aircraft and a NASA Global Hawk flew as close as 40 feet apart at an altitude of 45,000 feet, an industry-setting record.
Aerial View of the Site
A well-kept secret is the new CESVA UAS flight test centre which opened last year in Spain. Juan Secades, Director of the site, told UAS Vision: “We’ve had a lot of local clients – both military and commercial – who have been very satisfied with the experience, and now its time to open up the centre to international clients. We have a privileged location in an area with very low population and air traffic densities, good weather conditions and a large restricted airspace for flying UAS under the authorization of the Spanish Ministry of Defence.”
Carinthian Tech Research (Austria), Schiebel GmbH (Austria), and Quest Innovations B.V. (The Netherlands) have developed an aerial multispectral imaging system to monitor the soil composition of agricultural land.
A survey by job seekers web-site Indeed revealed that in the USA, the average annual salary of a UAS Operator, or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot, was $103,000 – somewhat greater than the average of $80,000 it found for Aircraft Pilots. For full results click here.
Chinese hackers allegedly broke into a computer network run by South Korea’s defence ministry last year and stole secret documents on a plan to buy spy drones from the United States, an opposition lawmaker in Seoul said on Monday.
Roger Powers and his team at Flint Hills Solutions shows us round their workshop where they are building affordable unmanned aircraft. The small Kansas company hit the news recently with a deal with the City of Eldorado.