Lockheed’s Skunk Works Reveals Tailless X-44A

Photo: Greg Norris and Guy Norris

In 2001, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works secretly flew a flying wing unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with a roughly 9m (30ft) wingspan with modular wings and a bulbous fuselage as a technology demonstrator for a family of aircraft. As the company prepares to celebrate the Skunk Works’ 75th anniversary in June, Lockheed decided to reveal the existence of the formerly secret project at the Los Angeles County air show on 24 March in Lancaster, California, which lies few miles north on Highway 14 from the unit’s headquarters in Palmdale. Continue reading →

NASA UTM Program Completes TCL 3 Testing at Nevada UAS Test Site

The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS), which manages the Nevada UAS Test Sites, and its NASA Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) partners flew multiple Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS or drones) over a week-long testing period at the Nevada UAS Test Site at the Reno-Stead Airport. The testing focused on airspace management technologies that will enable the safe integration of UAS into the NAS. Continue reading →

Phase One Industrial and Aerialtronics to Partner

Phase One Industrial, a global provider of medium format metric cameras and imaging solutions for aerial applications, announced that it has signed an agreement with Aerialtronics DV, a developer of end-to-end aerial data capture solutions. Together, these companies’ high-end products are opening up new opportunities in high-accuracy mapping and inspection markets. Continue reading →