More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation.
AirDog Auto-Follow Action Sports UAS
The goal of this Kickstarter project is to launch production of the AirDog, It is a simple to use personal UAS for every surfer, snow-skate-wake-kite-boarder, MX or BMX rider. The AirDog is a new development in personal UAS technology, developed by a group of engineers who are passionate about action sports. Continue reading
Global Hawk First Flight from Misawa
The RQ-4 Global Hawk made its first operational flight out of Misawa Air Base on June 6. The flight marked two milestones: the first time an RQ-4 mission has flown out of Japan, and the first operational mission flown out of a jointly-used civilian and military airfield. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman Gets $61M US Navy BAMS Contract
Northrop Grumman System Corp., San Diego, California, is being awarded a $61,326,794 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-12-C-0117) for operations and maintenance services in support of the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance – Demonstrator (BAMS-D) Unmanned Aircraft System.
‘Fly and Dip’ UAS to Collect Water Samples for Analysis
The remote controlled systems – developed by Cardiff based BCB International can land on water with a ‘fly and dip’ system – will be used in a research programme by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s SENSEable City Lab to collect water samples for analysis.
Skunk Riot Control Copter from South Africa
South African defence and off-road specialist, Desert Wolf has unveiled the Skunk Riot Control Copter, which is designed to control unruly crowds without endangering the lives of security staff. The Skunk is equipped with 4 high-capacity paint ball barrels firing at up to 20 bullets per second each, with 80 Pepper bullets per second stopping any crowd in its tracks.
Can Europe Ever Build a Workable UAS ?
There’s great interest in Europe developing a homegrown UAS-building programme “to add reconnaissance and strike capability at lesser cost and risk to service members.”
French National Aerobatics Team at St-Jean-de-Luz
A local web TV station in the south of France put together this 18-minute video of the French National Aerobatics Team, the ‘Patrouille de France‘ which put on this impressive demonstration over the Bay of St-Jean-de-Luz in October last year. It features both ground shots and onboard footage from ‘Athos 8’ the plane situated just behind the leader. Continue reading