General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced that it reached a significant milestone in its Independent Research and Development (IRAD) program to design, develop, and produce a variant of the Predator B RPA to be certified for flight according to the NATO Airworthiness Standard for unmanned aircraft.
Category Archives: Business News
Qualcomm Names First 10 Companies to Robotics Accelerator
Following a global recruiting effort that yielded hundreds of applications, San Diego-based Qualcomm today named the 10 startups selected for the new robotics accelerator program it is operating with Techstars. Continue reading
NATO’s First Alliance Ground Surveillance Aircraft
Expanding NATO’s joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability, Northrop Grumman Corporation and its industry partners together with NATO leaders unveiled the first NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) aircraft to an audience of customers, distinguished guests, employees and community leaders.
Combustion Engined Quadcopter
A German company airstier is building a quadcopter powered by a combustion engine, rather than batteries. The firm has launched a Kickstarter bid for yeair, a quadcopter driven by combustion engines that has a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), which can stay airborne for up to 60 minutes and carry up to 5kg in weight. Continue reading
French Air Force Adds Third Reaper to Fleet
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced that it has delivered a third Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper RPA to the French Ministry of Defence. Delivered less than two months after contract award, the aircraft joins two other French Reapers in service, which together have accumulated over 4,000 flight hours since operations began in January 2014.
Airware Launches Drone Investment Fund
Airware is announcing the Commercial Drone Fund, which will invest $250,000 to $1 million in dozens of early stage startups that are building out other components of the enterprise drone ecosystem. The fund’s first two investments are in RedBird, a Paris-based drone data processing startup, and Sky-Futures, a London company that builds drone sensors for monitoring oil and gas infrastructure. Continue reading
DJI and Accel Announce SkyFund
Accel invested $75 million into DJI this month, sparking this new partnership. Skyfund will make $250,000-plus investments in early stage drone startups through convertible notes or traditional seed and Series A rounds. DJI and Accel will have the option to make follow-on investments. Continue reading
General Atomics Gets $72M US Air Force Contract for 8 Reapers
General Atomics – Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, has been awarded a fixed-price incentive firm and firm-fixed-price $72,068,072 modification (01) to order 077 on the basic ordering agreement FA8620-10-G-3038.