Imagine a featherweight aircraft built of composites boasting an enormous 160 foot wing, swathed in solar cells that can take off at 20 mph and remain aloft for five years. The plane would fly at 65,000 feet, above most air traffic aside from the odd U-2 zooming past. It would, without a doubt, be the loneliest plane in history. Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
US Department of Homeland Security Extends UAS Assessment Programme
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon be taking new applications for its unmanned aircraft assessment programme — a project that gives potential government customers at local, state, and federal levels an impartial evaluation of the strengths and costs of different systems.
Highly-accurate Railway Mapping Project in Australia
DroneMetrex has announced that it has successfully performed a high-precision railway mapping project in Australia. The company’s in-house developed TopoDrone-100 flew and reliably mapped 0,5 km on each of the four sides of the approach to the crossing intersection of the railway and the bitumen road with great accuracy.
NASA Gulfstream G-III to Flight Test Shape-Changing Composite Flap
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s Gulfstream III aerodynamics research test bed aircraft is undergoing modification to support the Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge project, a joint effort between NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Continue reading
US Navy Turns to UAS for Help with Radar and Communications
Scientists recently launched unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from a research vessel in a significant experiment that could help boost the Navy’s radar and communications performance at sea.
NAVAIR Tests GPS Anti-Jamming Device on Small UAS
As part of an initiative to protect GPS technologies on small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the US Navy recently conducted tests to demonstrate how miniaturized GPS protection devices can prevent interruption of this mission-critical global positioning data.
US Senate Urges Navy To Slow Retirement Plans For X-47Bs
The Senate Appropriations Committee believes the Navy should not move quickly to retire two prototype unmanned aircraft that recently made history by demonstrating their ability to land and take-off on aircraft carriers. Continue reading
X-47B Carrier Deck – Seven Times Touch-and Go – POV from Landing Wheel Arch
The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) programme demonstrated an acute level of precision and repeatability during at-sea trials this spring/summer. On May 21 2013, the nose gear of the X-47B landed on the same relative spot on the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush seven times consecutively. Continue reading