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At its General Assembly, which took place in Paris, France on 14 January 2015, the members of French Fédération Professionnelle du Drone Civil (FPDC), a partner organization of UVS International and member of the International RPAS Coordination Council, voted in a new Board of Directors, which consists of the following persons (their respective affiliations are indicated between brackets):
The German military intends to revive its controversial Euro Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle programme after it was cancelled in 2013 due to spiralling costs and airworthiness issues.
Domingo Urena–Raso, Executive Vice President of Military Aircraft for Airbus Defence and Space, told a conference that Airbus is planning to create a centre in Poland for designing and assembling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for both military and civilian uses.
A coalition of 10 news media companies, including the Associated Press and the New York Times, announced that it has partnered with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) for the testing of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to gather news.
“In five years, the notion of a drone crashing will be a weird, foreign thing” says Adam Bry, co-founder of drone auto-pilot startup Skydio and founding member of Google’s Project Wing drone delivery project. Skydio connects a drone’s cameras to its flight computer so it can avoid obstacles and maneuver on its own without GPS. Continue reading
U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) have introduced The Unmanned Aircraft System Improvement Act of 2015, legislation that would provide critical reform to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) mismanaged Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) programme.
Finnish Energy Industries and Sharper Shape demonstrated drones with advanced sensors in public test flights as part of a research project conducted with the Electricity Research Pool.
South Africa is set to have its new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) regulations approved in April as the SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) moves forward with efforts to regulate UAVs flying in South African airspace. Continue reading