The skies above Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters may soon be buzzing with the sound of quadcopter drones. That’s because the company plans to fly at least one small, wireless-beaming drone at an altitude of 400 feet around its headquarters in the coming months. Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
NASA Plans First Multiple Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight Drone Demonstration in Nevada
In mid-October NASA partners will fly five unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly called drones, beyond visual line-of-sight of their human operators-in-command, to test planning, tracking and alerting capabilities of NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) research platform. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman Successfully Flies Optical Bar Camera on RQ-4 Global Hawk
Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully flew an Optical Bar Camera broad-area synoptic sensor on an RQ-4 Global Hawk high altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft system (UAS), marking the first time the legacy U.S. Air Force camera has been flown on a high altitude unmanned aircraft. Continue reading
US Army Cyber Command Tests COTS-Modified Quadcopter
During battlefield exercises that took place in August at Fort Irwin, California, the Army tested new tactical unmanned aerial vehicle capabilities to feed information directly to brigade combat team commanders.
Lockheed Martin Conducts First Underwater Unmanned Aircraft Launch from Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
Lockheed Martin has successfully launched Vector Hawk, a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), on command from the Marlin MK2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) during a cross-domain command and control event hosted by the U.S. Navy. Continue reading
GA-ASI Demonstrates Advanced Communications Capability
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI) has announced that its Network Centric Communications Pod (NCCP) successfully demonstrated the ability to provide a robust communications data link between Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) ground and air forces during an exercise held at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), Twentynine Palms, California, in July. Continue reading
US Navy Approves Triton for Production
The Department of the Navy announced the MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft System received milestone C approval, Sept. 22.
UPS Tests Drones for Urgent Deliveries
Package delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. began testing last Thursday the use of drones to make commercial deliveries of packages to remote locations. Working with Danvers, Mass.-based drone maker CyPhy Works, UPS staged a mock delivery of urgently needed medicine from Beverly, Mass. to Children’s Island. Continue reading