an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
The proliferation of small, relatively inexpensive unmanned aircraft (UAS) presents the Federal Aviation Administration with a challenge in identifying people who don’t follow the rules of the air or who endanger the nation’s airspace. So, the agency is asking the law enforcement community for help. Continue reading
Severe turbulence and a turbocharger failure led to the crash of an MQ-1B Predator high in the mountains north of Jalabad, Afghanistan, June 25, 2014, according to an Air Combat Command Abbreviated Accident Investigation Board report released on January 8th. Continue reading
GeoPost, the express delivery arm of French mail service La Poste, has now released a video of drone delivery testing at the Centre d’Etudes et d’Essais pour Modèles Autonomes (CEEMA) in September. Continue reading
The US Air Force is considering bonus pay to address a major shortage of RPAS pilots, according to officials at Air Combat Command.
Another US target drone was found off the coast of the Philippines on Sunday, January 4. The US embassy in Manila has confirmed it is a drone of the US Navy but said it is a target drone used during a military exercise conducted in September 2014 in waters off Guam and within international airspace.
UAV Vision has announced the opening of an additional production facility located in Sydney, Australia. To manage the increase in production rate for the rapidly growing interest in UAV Vision products, an additional facility was required to satisfy current and future customer demand.
The U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk and other variants of Northrop Grumman Corporation’s High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) series continued to prove their value to U.S. government agencies by flying more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission hours in one week than ever before.
The drone pilot drama Good Kill just released an international trailer. Hit or miss sci-fi director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, In Time) is at the helm of this film that follows Hawke as a fighter pilot who has adapted with technology and become a drone pilot. However, the task of piloting a drone for 12 hours a day and carrying out targeted kills from thousands of miles away just doesn’t feel right for the Air Force veteran. It looks like we might get some provocative political commentary on drones, not unlike what Niccol delivered with Lord of War before. Continue reading