The Secret Service is conducting middle-of-the-night drone flights near the White House in secret tests to devise a defence against the unmanned aircraft. The government-controlled drones will be flown between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. during the next several weeks over parts of Washington —airspace that’s usually off limits as a no-fly zone, according to a U.S. official briefed on the plans. Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
US Soldiers Give Black Hornet Thumbs Up
Quadcopters Train Falcons
Throughout the Middle East, falcons have been flown for hunting and sport for thousands of years. But devotees of this ancient tradition have brought falconry into the technological age with falconers using quadcopters to train their birds. Continue reading
Turkey’s Karayel Passes Flight Test with Payload
Officials with privately-owned Turkish firm Vestel Savunma said its Karayel UAV has passed a critical flight test, flying with an electro-optical camera and a total payload of 51 kilograms, and is ready to enter the Turkish military’s inventory.
Ship-Based UAV Ice Monitoring Mission in Arctic
ING Robotic Aviation, Canada’s leading provider of robotic aircraft solutions, has just completed its two week mission to Canada’s North on board Fednav’s ice-breaking cargo ship MV Arctic. Primarily a research and development initiative, this project (led by Enfotec) was designed to assess various operational and technical aspects of ship-based UAV ice monitoring.
NOAA Tests Unmanned Systems for Research and Management in National Marine Sanctuary System
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has successfully tested the integration of two different types of unmanned systems for potential use in research and management of national marine sanctuaries. The tests earlier this month in Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary involved NOAA’s Puma unmanned aircraft system and Liquid Robotics, Inc., Wave Gliders. Continue reading
Australia Seeks Co-operative Development on Triton
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is looking at entering into a co-operative development programme with the US Navy (USN) on the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), according to a senior service official. Continue reading


