Category Archives: Business News

Ex-Insitu Employee Gets 3 Months Jail

RQ-21 BlackjackA 49-year-old Kentucky man was sentenced last Thursday by a federal judge in Yakima to three months in prison for selling trade secrets involving drone aircraft. Stephen Martin Ward of Owensboro, Ky., was arrested in November 2011 in Indiana after giving a digital copy of an unmanned aircraft maintenance manual to an undercover agent for $10,000, according to a news release issued by Michael C. Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington in Spokane.

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Italy Considers Hammerhead as Predator Replacement

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Italy is evaluating the Piaggio Aero P1HH Hammerhead unmanned air vehicle (UAV) as a likely replacement for its air force’s fleet of GeneralAtomics Aeronautical Systems Predator as from later this decade. The medium-altitude, long-endurance type is being developed by Piaggio as an unmanned variant of its twin-pusher P180 Avanti II business aircraft, but is yet to attract a launch customer. Continue reading

Google Lease for Titan Aerospace Plant Approved

Officials are close to finalizing a deal for the state to appropriate nearly $1 million to Moriarty to run water and sewer lines to property leased by Google for an eventual 60,000-square-foot building where Titan Aerospace will produce its solar-powered drones. The Moriarty City Council will hold a special meeting Friday to consider an ordinance that would finalize a deal among the city, the state Economic Development Department and Google to construct infrastructure to the Moriarty Municipal Airport. Continue reading

SkyWard Secures $1.5 Million to Deliver the First Commercial Drone Management Platform

SkywardSkyWard, a pioneer in Drones as a Service (DaaS) software solutions, raised $1.5 Million in Seed round financing to build the first operations management platform for commercial robotic aircraft.  Voyager Capital led the round with participation from Draper Associates and Toivo Annus, founder and former head of engineering at Skype.

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