The US Marine Corps (USMC) has requested that the US Congress allow it to shift USD18.75 million from its RQ-7B Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to its RQ-21 Blackjack UAV programme in order to extend the latter’s range.
Category Archives: Aircraft Propulsion & Energy
Solar Impulse 2 First Flight
Solar Impulse 2 performed its First Flight on June 2 in Switzerland. It successfully landed after a maiden flight of 2 hours 17 minutes. The pilot was Markus Scherdel, test pilot of Solar Impulse. Continue reading
MIT Researchers’ UAS Recharges Batteries by Perching on Power Lines
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) have developed a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can perch on a power line like a bird. This opens up the possibility for UAVs to recharge their batteries using the magnetic fields emitted by power lines. Continue reading
Germany Tries Iranians for Smuggling UAS Engines as Jet Ski Parts
Iran’s Ababil
Two Iranian men charged with smuggling dozens of German-made engines capable of powering UAS into Iran by declaring them as jet ski engines went on trial at a Frankfurt court on Monday. Continue reading
Turkey’s Anka to Get New Engine
Turkish national engine specialist Tusas Turkish Engine Industries (TEI), which agreed to produce prototype engines for the country’s first indigenous UAS, has entered a partnership with GE Aviation and now anticipates export sales. Continue reading
New Lycoming Multi-Fuel Engine Soars Past 10,000 Flight Hours
AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, and Lycoming Engines, a division of Avco Corporation, announced today that Lycoming’s new EL-005 multi-fuel engine has surpassed 10,000 deployed flight hours with the Aerosonde Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) in service of U.S. Department of Defense customers in Afghanistan. Continue reading
Solar-Powered Silent Falcon UAS Moves to Production
Silent Falcon UAS Technologies (SFUAS), a former subsidiary of Bye Aerospace, Inc., announced a transition to the production phase of its Silent Falcon unmanned aircraft system.
Andalusian Solar Powered UAS Prototype Unveiled
Leaders from the tech centres IAT (Andalusian Institute for Technology, CATEC (Centre for Advanced Aerospace Technologies), CITIC (Andalusian Centre for Innovation and Information and Communication Technology) and CTAER (Advanced Technological Centre for Renewable Energy), grouped under the consortium C4T, have provided a preview of the PEGASO project (Aerial Experimental Platform for Advanced and Sustainable Management of on-board energy), which is seeking to produce a demonstrator of an unmanned solar aircraft, equipped with efficient management of on-board energy. The first prototype rolled out in Andalusia represents an innovation in the national and international sphere within the aerospace market. Continue reading