Before airplanes and drones existed, people owned everything above and below their land—according to the law, their rights extended “to the heavens and down to hell.” But modern aviation changed this definition in a big way. In the early 20th century Congress declared the air a public highway, which limited land rights so that people were not trespassing every time they flew. That public highway has generally been considered 500 feet and above.
US Army Special Ops Want Multi-Intelligence UAS
Army aviation special operators want new unmanned aircraft systems that can carry multiple sensors to collect vital intelligence from the battlefield and they’re working with the Army to achieve the capability, Brig. Gen. Erik Peterson, the Army Special Operations Aviation Command commander, said last Thursday. Continue reading
Bird-Repelling Drone Imitates Real-Life Predator
Scarecrows and other visually intimidating props placed on the ground can be useful in deterring birds within a certain radius, but one company is looking further afield by battling the pests in the sky. Designed to resemble a real-life bird of prey, the ProHawk UAV can be programmed to autonomously fly over a property and emit menacing predatory cries as it goes. Continue reading
New Sensor Capability Testing on RQ-4 Global Hawk
The Northrop Grumman universal payload adapter attaches to the underside of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. Continue reading
Naval Postgraduate School Drone Checks Arctic Ice Loss
Naval Postgraduate School polar meteorologist and professor Peter Guest spent more than 40 days late last year as the only scientist from NPS in a group from the U.S. and other countries researching the region’s receding ice cover. It’s a part of the world the United States and other nations are showing great interest in. Continue reading
Belgian Drone Mixes Plane and QuadCopter Technology
Researchers in Belgium have devised a prototype delivery drone which they say could rival the likes of Amazon Prime Air and Google’s Project Wing. The University of Leuven team behind VertiKUL 2 (KUL is the acronym for Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) say the drone combines the ability of quad-copters to take-off and land vertically with both the speed of conventional aircraft and their capacity to fly long distances.
Safer Drone Is The Future Of Tech Design
A new drone called Fleye uses a new safer drone design, using protective grids to prevent any injury from the drones spinning blades— the creators made sure that the Fleye was safe to use. Continue reading
US Air Force wants Sense-and-Avoid Technology
The US Air Force has released a request for information notice requesting sense-and-avoid technologies for large RPAs – Predators and Global Hawks – though the notice said that respondents are encouraged to include sense and avoid technologies for smaller RPA such as the hand-launched Wasp and Raven. Continue reading