The US Secret Service arrested a man who was flying a small drone less than a block from the White House on last Thursday afternoon, law enforcement officials said.
South Africa Introduces Regulations
New rules regulating the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), popularly known as drones have been signed by the Minister of Transport, Ms Dipuo Peters and will be officially be put into effect 01 July 2015
Director of Civil Aviation Poppy Khoza said the South African Civil Aviation Authority, a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) RPAS Panel, had engaged with a number of key role players such as operators, manufacturers, and other airspace users and after months of amendments and incorporating requests by various stakeholders a draft was approved by the Minister of Transport on 5 May 2015. Continue reading
China Offers Weaponised UAS to Jordan
China is offering to sell Jordan missile-firing drones to fight the Islamic State terror army, according to a U.S. congressman. Continue reading
Drone World Expo Announces Speaker Line Up
Dozens of educational sessions and case studies will be offered at this November’s Drone World Expo and will be led by thought leaders, industry experts and end-users who will present real-world solutions. The education program, which is being offered at no charge to qualified end-users, will bring thousands of professionals to the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California from Tuesday, November 17 through Wednesday, November 18, 2015. The event is sponsored by DJI, DroneDeploy and Precision Integrated. Continue reading
RQ-11 Crashes in Colorado Springs Garden
Ronald Fisk had never seen a drone aside from pictures of the aircraft on the Internet. That changed when one crashed near his backyard on Tuesday. As Fisk was fixing a water heater in his mother-in-law’s front yard connected to his house near downtown Colorado Springs, Fisk turned around to see flashing lights and a camera within the device. He did not hear it come down.
“It looked expensive,” Fisk said. “I couldn’t figure out who owned it, so I wrote my telephone number on a piece of paper because the camera was moving and held it in front of the camera, thinking someone would call me if they wanted it back. That didn’t work out, so I called the police.”
It turned out that a little military drone went on a long journey when Fort Carson controllers lost track of the 4-pound RQ-11 craft and it wandered all the way to Fisk’s neighborhood on Alexander Road between Uintah and San Miguel streets. Continue reading
Holographic Radar Can Detect sUAS at 4 Nautical Miles
Following a series of tests beginning at the end of last year, Aveillant’s unique holographic radar has proved able to detect and track drones, as small as the commercially available Phantom II, at ranges in excess of 4 nautical miles.
MIT $100K Winner Provides Crop Analytics by UAS
RaptorMaps—a startup that’s developed drones to provide analytics on crops and make agriculture more sustainable—has won the 2015 MIT $100K business competition.
Drones Banned from 81 Tokyo Parks
The Tokyo metropolitan government has prohibited people from operating drones in all metropolitan parks, officials said. A total of 81 parks and gardens managed by the metropolitan government are subject to the ban, which also prohibits people from bringing drones into the parks.