Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea. Continue reading
Category Archives: Non-Military & Commercial UAS
National Technical Systems Gets $1.6M UAS Atmospheric Monitoring Contract from Sandia National Laboratories
National Technical Systems, Inc. , a provider of testing and engineering services, announced that it has signed a $1.6 million contract with Sandia National Laboratories to continue the development of the Harvester project, a programme authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy dedicated to monitoring nuclear emissions in the atmosphere through the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Continue reading
H4 Rescue & Aerial Fire Fighting Forum in Aix en Provence, France
Flying Robots S.A., based in Geneva, Switzerland, participates, thanks to Pôle Pegase, in an European project designated “H4 Rescue”, defining requirements for Large VTOL (FTH Eurocopter), or Very Short TOL Transport RPAS (Flying Robots S.A.), or a Large Airship (Euro Airship), used for transporting loads to crisis sites (last mile). In particular, it examines their deployment in civil emergency scenarios, like fires, floods, earthquakes, and environmental disasters. Continue reading
Oregon State University UAS to Monitor Potato Crops
Researchers with Oregon State University believe new remote-controlled aircraft could help farmers better manage resources in the field, lowering their costs while increasing yield of high-value crops. Continue reading
Unmanned OctoCopter Crashes into Thames Filming TV Show
A scuba diver has told how he recovered vital footage of the new series of The X Factor after answering an SOS call from producers to retrieve a video camera from the Thames. Continue reading
Northern Ireland Police Get £1M UAS Budget for G8 Surveillance
The Policing Board has endorsed proposals by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to buy a number of unmanned aircraft systems. It is understood that the Police Service of Northern Ireland is to purchase three small UAS at a combined cost of around £1m. Continue reading
Nitrofirex Presents UAS Able to Fight Forest-Fires at Night
Spanish company Nitrofirex presented the first version of an unmanned aircraft capable of combating forest fires at night at the Aerial Firefighting Europe Forum held in Aix-en- Provence (France) on April 10/11. Continue reading
US Animal Rights Organisation PETA Buys Octocopters to Track Illegal Hunting
Animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced plans to launch hunter- and fisher-tracking unmanned aircraft in American airspace. Continue reading