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The final request for proposal (RFP) for the Navy’s planned carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been delayed pending a review of the service’s information, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) portfolio as part of the service’s budget process this fall, Navy officials told USNI News. Continue reading
Elbit Systems is offering a newly upgraded version of its Hermes 90 unmanned air system to some potential customers, and expects to agree one contract before the end of the year.
Polish unmanned air vehicle manufacturer Flytronic is using the MSPO defence show in Kielce to highlight its range, as Poland’s military looks to acquire systems across five weight categories. Pride of place on its stand is the Manta LE, a hybrid-engined intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform that can offer vertical take-off and landing capability, as well as regular flight. Continue reading
Scientists at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based research institute, and colleagues at Utrecht University in the Netherlands used unmanned aerial vehicles – UAVs, or drones to the layman – to map the Lirung glacier in Nepal in 2013. Their results appear in the July issue of the journal Science Direct. Continue reading
With sensors covering his head, University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student Mauricio Merino concentrates hard as a camo-colored drone hovers with a soft hum in the middle of a campus research lab. For now, fellow graduate student Prasanna Kolar stands nearby to operate the unmanned aerial vehicle through a cell phone app — gently commanding it left and right. But the goal is to create a process for a human to control the movements of groups of drones with only a thought, said Daniel Pack, chairman of UTSA’s electrical and computer engineering department.
China’s reconnaissance and strike UAS Rainbow NO.4 has conducted a test flight and completed simulation target practice, marking a major step forward for China’s unmanned technology. “The test flight was very successful today. During acceleration and deceleration, the aircraft kept taxiing on a central line on the runway. It’s well positioned to carry out the subsequent missions,” Li Pingkun, head of Rainbow No.4 Project, said.
Techniques to avoid aircraft collisions took center stage as aviation experts met in Washington this week to continue hammering out the standards essential to integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the nation’s skies. The standards are being developed by RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228), one of the family of committees operating through RTCA, Inc., which develops consensus standard for aviation, which are then adopted and put into real-world practice by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Researchers at NASA are working on ways to manage that menagerie of low-flying aircraft. At NASA’s Moffett Field, about four miles from Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., the agency has been developing a UAS traffic management programme that would in effect be a separate air traffic control system for things that fly low to the ground — around 400 to 500 feet for most drones. Continue reading