William Overstreet Jr., a World War II fighter pilot who in 1944 famously flew his P-51C Mustang through the arches of the Eiffel Tower while in pursuit of a German Messerschmitt Bf 109G aircraft, died at a hospital in Roanoke, Va., on Dec. 29, reported the local paper He was 92. Continue reading
Category Archives: News
Parrot Launches MiniDrone & Parrot Jumping Sumo at CES
Parrot‘s been offering up relatively small updates to its AR.Drone line each year at CES, and while the quadcopter is, without question, one of the most immediately recognizable in the space, we’ve been waiting to see a genuinely fresh take on the product. Continue reading
Nigeria’s First Indigenous UAS Flight – Gulma Tactical UAS
The first public demonstration flight of country’s first indigenous unmanned aircraft system, the GULMA Tactical UAS NAF 610 designed and constructed by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
Total Market for Electric Unmanned Aircraft Systems Will Reach over $1 Billion by 2023
The total market value for electric unmanned aircraft systems will reach over one Billion dollars by 2023 according to findings in the new IDTechEx report, Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) 2013-2023.
UAS to Help Pygmy Rabbit Research
In mid-January, scientists from four universities will fly small, unmanned aircraft systems over sagebrush habitat near Magic Reservoir to obtain information about the habitat needs of pygmy rabbits. The pygmy rabbit has been considered for listing as an endangered species since 2003, when the Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project and several other conservation groups filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2010, the agency rejected the petition on the grounds that it did not have enough data to decide whether the species warranted listing, but a spokesman told the Idaho Mountain Express at that time that the rabbits’ sagebrush habitat was clearly shrinking. Continue reading
Pentagon Plans to Weaponize More UAS
As the war in Afghanistan ends and new threats emerge in the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon is considering adapting multiple weapons for UAS, including the Cold War-era Hydra 70 rocket and the Laser Homing Attack or Anti-Tank Missile, or LAHAT, according to its latest report on the future of unmanned systems. Continue reading
Central New York’s NUAIR National UAS Test Site Announces First Customer
Only days after Syracuse-based NUAIR won federal designation to operate one of six national test sites for unmanned aircraft, the alliance has landed its first client from private industry. Continue reading
Eight Teams Earn DARPA Funds for 2014 Robotics Finals – Google’s Schaft Team Ahead
On December 21, at a racetrack complex near Miami, eight robots took their first steps into the future, one that scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency envisioned for them as the world watched the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster unfold in 2011. Continue reading