The first Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership at Virginia Tech test flight using a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft to inspect an energy pipeline route—with a piloted chase plane following behind to ensure safety beyond the ground observers’ sight line —was completed last week. The flight was a step toward making aerial inspections of energy pipelines safer and more economical, researchers say.
Drone Racing at 150 KPH
True believers hope they’re at the start of what’ll be a global movement, but for now they gather in fields, beaches and even car parks for fun – which involves flying drones at night, seeing what the drone sees.
China’s SF Express Delivers 500 Parcels per Day
China’s largest mail company is set to deliver more than 1,000 packages a day by drone. S.F. Express has revealed it already has a fleet of aircraft flying 500 parcels a day to remote areas, and it is now looking to double the capacity. The all-weather drones deliver parcels between couriers before automatically return to base, according to People’s Daily Online.
Octocopters to Detect Unexploded Bombs in Laos
Austin-based ArchAerial‘s new drone mission could potentially save lives in war-torn regions that are prone to accidents and fatalities from unexploded bombs. Continue reading
Google Project Leader Predicts Unmanned Passenger Aircraft “in his lifetime”
The head of a project that is developing commercial drones predicts the day will come when passenger aircraft will fly without pilots. Dave Vos, head of Google’s Project Wing, said Monday his personal view is that it’s completely doable and that it will occur in his lifetime.
Israel Tops UAV Exporters List
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in the period between 1985 and 2014, 60.7% of all exported unmanned aircraft in the world were produced in Israel. The United States comes second as a manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, as it supplied 23.9% of all (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) UAVs exported during this period. Canada came third with 6.4%. Continue reading
Micro Aerial Vehicle Type Wall-Climbing Robot
As civil structures become massive and high, the maintenance and inspection for the structures are getting important, however most of the conventional maintenance and inspection methods are labor-intensive. It has a problem of the large cost due to the staffing professionals, lack of professional manpower and high risk for hard to reach areas. Continue reading
Attn: Newsletter Readers – Conflict with Outlook
We’ve had reports in the last couple of days that some newsletter subscribers who use Outlook have had issues with the Daily Newsletter. This appears to have been triggered by a recent automatic update to Outlook which conflicts with the mass-mailing of our newsletter. We are working with our service provider, MailChimp, to find a way around the problem. We regret the inconvenience and hope that they will find a solution shortly.
Meanwhile, thanks for your patience…
The Editor