Just after dawn on May 22, Facebook reached another exciting and important milestone for the Aquila program — completing the successful second full-scale test flight of the aircraft. The aircraft flew for 1 hour and 46 minutes, and landed perfectly on our prepared landing site. Continue reading
Block 5 MQ-9 Reaper Makes Combat Debut
The latest version of the MQ-9 Reaper, the Block 5 variant, flew its first successful combat mission June 23, 2017, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Continue reading
DARPA Test-Flies Autonomous Small Quad-Copters
Phase 1 of DARPA’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program concluded recently following a series of obstacle-course flight tests in central Florida. Over four days, three teams of DARPA-supported researchers huddled under shade tents in the sweltering Florida sun, fine-tuning their sensor-laden quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during the intervals between increasingly difficult runs. Continue reading
Drone ID Aviation Rulemaking Committee Update
The first meeting of the UAS Identification and Tracking Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) on June 21-23 advanced key policies of concern to the FAA, industry and law enforcement. Continue reading
Malawi and Unicef Launch Drone Air Corridor
Malawi has launched Africa’s first air corridor to test the use of drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, in humanitarian missions in partnership with the UN children’s agency, Unicef. Continue reading
New Russian Anti-Aircraft Weapons Cluster
Rostec’s subsidiary Tula KBP introduces its new naval missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system Pantsir-ME that provides protection against modern air threats, including low-flying and small-size unmanned aerial vehicles. Continue reading
Armenia Exhibits Locally Made UAVs
UAV LAB exhibited three models of locally produced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the engineering forum-expo in Vanadzor Technology Center on June 24. Continue reading
Transport Canada Approves Drone Test Range in Alma
Transport Canada is committed to enhancing the safety and security of Canadians while fostering innovation as it continues to explore the use of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones, to fulfil its mandate. Continue reading