The Israeli developed AirMule, an unmanned VTOL aircraft developed by Urban Aeronautics successfully completed a major milestone in preparation for full mission demonstrations scheduled for next year. Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
Global Hawk Flies in Canadian Airspace for First Time to Study Canadian Arctic
Northrop Grumman Corporation, the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and a team of international science organizations successfully flew a Northrop Grumman-produced NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system through Canadian airspace as part of a mission to collect environmental data in the Canadian Arctic. Continue reading
Sikorsky Innovations Gets $15M DARPA Contract for Phase 1 VTOL-X Plane Design
Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development organization of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., has announced it has won a contract for Phase 1 of the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft (VTOL X-Plane) programme by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Continue reading
US Army Vehicle-Mounted Laser Successfully Demonstrated Against UAS and Other Targets
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command for the first time used a vehicle mounted high energy laser to successfully engage more than 90 mortar rounds and several unmanned aircraft systems in flight. Continue reading
Android Smartphone Used to Create SmartCopter – Low-Cost Autonomous UAS
Researchers are using a smartphone as the brains behind a small, inexpensive UAS – the phone enables it to find its way around enclosed indoor spaces without using GPS or a remote guide. Although it’s still at an early stage, the so-called SmartCopter could eventually make it safer and cheaper to scout out disaster scenes before human responders plunge in. Continue reading
General Atomics Successfully Flight Tests Sense and Avoid Functions on Predator B
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced the completion of the first of several planned flight tests of a Sense and Avoid (SAA) architecture and Self Separation functionality. This marks the first time the system has functioned as a true “system of systems” to detect every class of aircraft equipage and paves the way for a Due Regard capability. Continue reading
Iran Claims Reverse-Enginered RQ-170 Soon Ready to Fly
Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami announced that the Iranian version of the RQ-170 which has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the American UAS which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011, will be unveiled to the public soon. “The construction will finish soon and most of the job has been done now,” General Salami told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. Continue reading
SF Express Starts UAS Delivery Trials in Shanghai
SF Express, a Shanghai-based logistics company, announced that it has recently commenced trial operations. SF Express said that UAS delivery can save labour costs and improve delivery efficiency, as reported by the Beijing News. Continue reading