China’s growing defence industry has quickly made a name for itself, especially in drones. Government produced CH-3 and CH-4 combat drones are already used worldwide, including by the Iraqi and Nigerian governments. Now NORINCO, one of the country’s largest state-owned corporations, is getting into the the act with a drone of its own.
Category Archives: VTOL
Northrop Grumman Awarded Fire Scout Task Order
Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, California, is being awarded $7,280,560 for cost-plus-fixed-fee task order 1269 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026) in support of the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aircraft systems. Continue reading
US Navy Set to Debut Enhanced MQ-8B Fire Scout
The US Navy (USN) is nearly ready to commence deployment of a radar-equipped Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial system (UAS) aboard the Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) from June 2016. Continue reading
360 Video of NASA Greased Lightning GL-10 in Flight
NASA has just released this 360 degree video of the battery powered, 10-propeller GL-10 Greased Lightning in flight. This is the same video that they show on virtual reality headsets at some conferences. It can be viewed in 360 on many devices. Continue reading
Schiebel Camcopter S 100 – Successful Flights with Airborne Detect and Avoid System
Schiebel and the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), the Netherlands Coastguard and the Royal Netherlands Air Force conducted a series of at the airport of Den Helder in December 2015. The AIRICA (ATM Innovative RPAS Integration for Coastguard Applications) project marks a major step forward in the process of safe integration of RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) into all classes of airspace.
Swiss VTOL Fixed Wing Drone Unveiled
Unmanned AirMule First Untethered Flight
On 30 December 2015, Urban Aeronautics’ AirMule completed its first autonomous, untethered flight at Megiddo airfield in northern Israel. Continue reading
Tern Moves Closer to Full-Scale Demonstration of Unmanned VTOL Aircraft
Small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates could greatly increase their effectiveness if they had their own unmanned air systems (UAS) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities at long range around the clock. Current state-of-the-art UASs, however, lack the ability to take off and land from confined spaces in rough seas and achieve efficient long-duration flight. Continue reading