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
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
US Navy Tests Puma and Aerostat to Detect Drug Smugglers
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
DARPA Demonstrates Five-micron Pixel LWIR Camera
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
Boeing X-48C Blended Wing Body Research Aircraft Completes Flight Testing
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
South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Promotes Civil MALE UAS Development
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
X-47B Unmanned Aerial Refueling Demo Victim Of Cuts
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
H4 Rescue & Aerial Fire Fighting Forum in Aix en Provence, France
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
BAE Prepares Taranis Tests at Woomera
The most secretive piece of airspace in Australia – the RAAF-run Woomera flight test range in South Australia – will make history later this year when BAE’s Taranis makes its maiden test flight above the desert. The rocket range is the second busiest launch pad in the world after NASA’s Cape Canaveral in Florida. Continue reading