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.
Category Archives: Transport
FAA Approves Drone Food Delivery in North Carolina
Drone company Flytrex and the drone services company Causey Aviation Unmanned, Inc. (CAU) received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin food deliveries by drone in Holly Springs, North Carolina. As part of the FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) and in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), Causey Aviation, the Town of Holly Springs, and Kite Realty Group Trust Flytrex will soon begin its on-demand, unmanned food delivery via commercial drones for local residents. Continue reading
First Generation Drone Pilot Delivering Blood in South Africa
Lebohang Lebogo is a medical technician with the South African National Blood Service (SANBS), whose sights are firmly set on reaching for the stars. Lebogo, 29, is one of South Africa’s first generation of drone pilots, whose mission is to save lives delivering bloods to far-flung places where conventional transport is often a challenge, particularly when it comes to emergency.
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
Amazon’s New Delivery Drone has ‘Fail-Safe Logic
Amazon.com Inc.’s latest drone can avoid a helicopter, but it might cancel a delivery if your dog wanders into the Prime-package drop zone. That’s according to a letter the company sent federal regulators in July seeking the OK to fly its unmanned aircraft to customers’ homes in “sparsely populated” regions of the United States. Continue reading
Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash
For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights as of last January, but a January 25th crash into Lake Zurich put things on hold until April. Continue reading
German Researchers Develop Unmanned Gyrocopter for Heavier Cargo
Drone gyrocopter over Cochstedt Airport, Germany
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a new type of gyrocopter that gets rid of the pilot to provide more cargo space. The focus of the Automated Low Altitude Air Delivery (ALAADy) system, the ALAADy Demonstrator unmanned gyrocopter is designed to autonomously deliver heavier cargoes at low altitudes. Continue reading
Uber Eats Successful Delivery Tests used 4G BVLoS Technology
Uber Eats successfully tested its first food delivery by drone recently, in a high-density urban area with the assistance of technology from San Diego-based startup ModalAI. As the drone carried its edible cargo, VOXL, a powerful yet light-weight computing platform with 4G cellular connectivity, helped keep it safely on the flight path, even when the drone was out of sight from the pilot-in-command. Continue reading