Conventional multicopter drones are excellent at hovering and VTOL, but they can’t cover long distances as efficiently as fixed-wing aircraft. A team of students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design is trying to get the best of both worlds with the Transformable HOvering Rotorcraft (THOR). Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
US Navy Special Ops Interested in Air/Water Drone
At the Office of Naval Research’s annual Science and Technology Expo on Friday in Washington, D.C., a development team from Rutgers University demonstrated the unusual quadcopter, which can swim at depths of up to 10 meters, then seamlessly launch to the surface and soar into the air. Continue reading
US Special Forces Test New Anti-Drone Systems
The DOD’s Navy Special Warfare Command signed a $1.5 million deal with San Diego-based SkySafe to test a field-deployed mobile counter-drone system aimed at detecting, identifying, tracking and intercepting a blossoming fleet of commercial drones outfitted to attack U.S. forces. Continue reading
Dogfighting Swarms – Georgia Tech v. US Navy
Aerial dogfighting began more than a century ago in the skies over Europe with propeller-driven fighter aircraft carried aloft on wings of fabric and wood. An event held recently in southern California could mark the beginning of a new chapter in this form of aerial combat. Continue reading
South Korean Tiltrotor Completes Flight Trials from Ship
South Korea’s locally developed TR-60 tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has for the first time successfully carried out flight trials from a moving ship, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said in a statement on 11 July. Continue reading
Airbus Flight Tests Jet-Powered Sagitta in South Africa
Airbus Defence and Space has successfully tested a new type of aircraft that will aid the development of future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for series production. The unmanned jet-propelled demonstrator with the project name SAGITTA flew completely autonomously for around seven minutes over Denel’s Overberg Test Range (OTR) in South Africa, on a pre-programmed course. Continue reading
Estonia’s Drone Nest Readies for Trials
Estonia’s Eli Airborne Solutions expects to start field testing of its Drone Nest later this year, with a goal of having a production-ready system in early 2018. Continue reading
Redkite Wide-Area Sensor Undergoes Successful Test Aboard TigerShark
Logos Technologies announced that its powerful, lightweight Redkite wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor successfully completed testing aboard a TigerShark, a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation (NASC). Continue reading