UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
Eurocopter’s ability to integrate unmanned flight capabilities into its helicopter family has been validated by an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) demonstration programme, which used an EC145 to fly routes that included deployment of an external sling load and a representative observation mission. Continue reading
San Javier Air Base (Murcia) was selected to conduct the trials and demonstrate that satellite communications are suitable to operate Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and integrate them into civil airspace. Continue reading
Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea. Continue reading
The military uses long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras as thermal imagers to detect humans at night. These cameras are usually mounted on vehicles as they are too large to be carried by a single warfighter and are too expensive for individual deployment. However, DARPA researchers recently demonstrated a new five-micron pixel LWIR camera that could make this class of camera smaller and less expensive. Continue reading
The Boeing X-48C research aircraft flew for the 30th and final time April 9, marking the successful completion of an eight-month flight-test programme to explore and further validate the aerodynamic characteristics of the Blended Wing Body design concept. Continue reading
The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is making progress in integrating national research and testing efforts aimed at putting technologies in place for a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system through the Civil Commercial Unmanned Aerial System (CCUAS) project. Continue reading
Plans to demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat aircraft are a casualty of cuts in the U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2014 budget. Continue reading
Flying Robots S.A., based in Geneva, Switzerland, participates, thanks to Pôle Pegase, in an European project designated “H4 Rescue”, defining requirements for Large VTOL (FTH Eurocopter), or Very Short TOL Transport RPAS (Flying Robots S.A.), or a Large Airship (Euro Airship), used for transporting loads to crisis sites (last mile). In particular, it examines their deployment in civil emergency scenarios, like fires, floods, earthquakes, and environmental disasters. Continue reading