Alphabet’s innovation lab X drone-focused team called Project Wing has just announced a plan to commence aerial burrito delivery, in partnership with Chipotle, on the campus of Virgina Tech this week.
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
US Navy Demonstrates Cross-Domain Communications via Blackwing Submarine-Launched UAV
AeroVironment, Inc. has announced the United States Navy has successfully demonstrated the use of its submarine-launched Blackwing UAV to link with a swarm of unmanned undersea vehicles and communicate with the submarine combat control system during the Annual Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) on August 16.
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center Students Test Fly Mars Airplane Prototype
At NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in California a group of students successfully flew a prototype of an aircraft that could one day fly in the Martian atmosphere and send its findings back to Earth.
Predator B Detects and Tracks Ballistic Missile in Pacific Dragon Exercise
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), has announced that through a contract with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), it executed a missile tracking test as part of the Pacific Dragon (PD) exercise held June 26-28 off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii. Continue reading
Arctic-Capable Solar-Powered Russian UAV
A prototype of an Arctic-capable solar-powered drone for monitoring and telecommunications transmissions has successfully performed a 50-hour-long test-flight in Russia. Designers are preparing a three-times-bigger version for tests later this year.
Facebook’s Solar-Powered Aquila Completes First Flight
Connectivity Lab announced the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, facebook’s high-altitude unmanned aircraft. Aquila is a solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. Continue reading
Russia Tested Hydrogen-Powered UAV in Syria
During the operation in Syria, the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (VKO) has tested hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a top-ranking representative of the military-industrial complex. According to him, air drones equipped with hydrogen engines showed very good results during the test flights.
3W-Powered UAV for Flights in Antarctica
At the end of February 2016, mechatronics lead Kevin Bass of Intuitive Machines and contracted pilot Mike Laible set off on a planned excursion to Antarctica. In cooperation with the UTIG (University of Texas Institute for Geophysics) and ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate) Intuitive Machines successfully flew multiple runs with a 3W-powered unmanned aerial vehicle platform, Tiburon Jr., on the coast of Antarctica.