Boeing has announced the successful autonomous communications and operation of dissimilar unmanned aircraft in flight tests over the rugged terrain of eastern Oregon.
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
Raytheon Completes Lab Testing Gravity-Dropped Bomb Specifically Designed for Employment from UAS
Raytheon Company completed laboratory integration and testing of its Small Tactical Munition Phase II configuration, setting the stage for flight tests later this year. The new configuration is smaller, more affordable and fits in common launch tube.
Northrop STARLite Radar Demonstrates Dismount Tracking at Empire Challenge 2011
A STARLite-equipped Firebird at the Empire Challenge Exercise
At the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Empire Challenge 2011, Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully demonstrated the ability of its STARLite radar to provide Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) data and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery to ground commanders in real time.
Lindbergh Prize for Electric Aircraft Vision Award Goes to ELEKTRA ONE from PC-Aero
From left to right: in the cockpit: Test Pilot Norbert Lorenzen, Sascha Voitle (mechanic), Calin Gologan (developer of the Elektra One and CEO PC-Aero), Michael Mularski (SolarWorld) Photo:Shahn Sederberg
Erik Lindbergh, founder of LEAP, announced the winner of the Lindbergh Prize for Electric Aircraft at the World Electric Aircraft Symposium at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh. PC-Aero is the winner for its integration of Solar World’s solar technology into its ELEKTRA ONE aircraft and the supporting hangar.
Northrop Grumman Joins Sand Dragon Unmanned Aircraft Programme Against Improvised Explosive Devices (IED)
Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego is joining the U.S. Air Force Sand Dragon UAV programme to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other roadside bombs. Northrop Grumman won a $26.2 million contract Friday for the Air Force Sand Dragon B programme to develop and deploy a UAV with counter-IED capability.
Apparently Northrop Grumman is joining the Chandler May Inc. AME Unmanned Air Systems segment in San Luis Obispo, Calif., which since early 2010 has been working on the Air Force’s Sand Dragon medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for route surveillance on missions as long as 24 hours.
Awarding the contract Friday to Northrop Grumman were officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio — the same organization providing funding to Chandler May’s AME Unmanned Air Systems of $16.4 million in 2010 and $2.14 million this year for the Sand Dragon UAV programme.
Friday’s Air Force contract announcement does not make clear the extent of the work that Northrop Grumman will do on the Sand Dragon B development effort.
Chandler May AME is providing the company’s Fury B catapult-launched UAV for the Sand Dragon programme, which can operate independently of prepared runways on missions lasting as long as 24 hours. The Chandler May AME San Dragon UAV will be fitted with a dual-band radar and electro-optical sensor to help detect and locate IED threats.
Falcon Hypersonic Aircraft Test Flight Fails
Engineers and scientists monitoring the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, which was designed to fly at 20 times the speed of sound, lost contact with the vehicle midway through a scheduled 30-minute flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
DARPA Mach 20 Hypersonic Falcon HTV-2 Second Flight Test Today
DARPA’s second flight test of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 is scheduled to launch today. The flight window is between 7:00am – 1:00 pm PDT from Vandenberg Air Forc Base, California, aboard an Air Force Minotaur IV rocket.
Canada Deploys ScanEagles in Arctic Air Disaster Exercise
Canada is deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft to the High Arctic for the first time, as part of the largest military exercise ever in the Far North.