Stratodynamics and UAVOS have announced their pioneering flight of the HiDRON stratospheric glider. The HiDRON successfully reached a new altitude of 30 km (98,450 feet) breaking their previous 25km record. The flight demonstrated the team’s capability to perform beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations with a UAV at high altitudes. Continue reading
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
First Autonomous Flight for Bell Autonomous Pod Transport
Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. company, has announced the successful first autonomous flight of the Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 at its testing site near Fort Worth. Bell plans to continue to test the vehicle under an experimental type certificate throughout the remainder of the year.
RAF Protector Demos Automatic Take-off and Landing
On August 16th, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) gave a flight demonstration to Royal Air Force (RAF) senior leadership and RAF Reaper operators, as well as guests from the U.S. Marine Corp. and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Continue reading
AirMap Demonstrates Dynamic Flight Plan Modification Capabilities During European U-space Trials
On August 13, 2019, AirMap and SESAR JU GOF USPACE partners completed a successful demonstration of the ability to dynamically modify a drone flight plan in-flight within a UTM system during an exercise simulating a marine search and rescue operation. Continue reading
Japan’s NEC ‘Flying Car’ First Hover
Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. on Monday showed a “flying car,” a large drone-like machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute. The test flight reaching 3 meters (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb. Continue reading
DARPA Teams Test Swarm Autonomy in Second Major OFFSET Field Experiment
During the second field experiment for DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, which took place at Fort Benning, Georgia, teams of autonomous air and ground robots tested tactics on a mission to isolate an urban objective. Continue reading
QinetiQ Supports NextGen Search and Rescue Missions
QinetiQ collaborates with the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to investigate how drone technology can strengthen their Search and Rescue missions. Continue reading
DLA Conducts Drone Research Test Flights in Cape May

An unmanned aircraft system delivers a case of First Strike Rations and a case of bottle water from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal to the USCGC Lawrence Lawson off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey to evaluate its land-to-sea-to-land capabilities, July 25, 2019
A Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Subsistence team, in partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey Innovation Institutes Unmanned Aviation Systems Test Site and a contracted vendor, successfully conducted two unmanned aircraft systems research flights, July 24-25 at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal in Cape May, New Jersey. Continue reading




