The past few months have been marked by numerous interesting developments affecting the French UAS legal framework. The main highlights can be summarised as follows: Continue reading
Second Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8C Fire Scout Completes First Flight
Northrop Grumman Corporation and the U.S. Navy successfully flew the second MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter for the first time. Conducted at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California, the flight will allow the team to ramp up testing efforts to prepare the system for operations. Continue reading
QF-4 Unmanned Aerial Target Accident Report Released
A defective pitch-rate controller led to a QRF-4C Phantom II crash just eight seconds after take-off from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., July 17, 2013, according to an Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Board report just released. Continue reading
Customs and Border Protection Predator Fleet Flies Again
Effective Feb. 7, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lifted the temporary grounding of its entire Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) fleet — an order that was put in place on Jan. 24 “out of an abundance of caution” following an Office of Air and Marine flight crew having had to ditch one of CBP’s multi-million dollar Predators in the Pacific Ocean at about 11:15 PM PST” on Jan. 27. Continue reading
AR Drone Demos Armband Control
Parrot AR Drone just published this video of a demonstration of a futuristic piloting mode with the next Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy product from Thalmic Labs. Continue reading
UAS Flight Combat Game in Beta Version
Hunting Anubis is a single/multiplayer combat flight sim focusing on near future UAS warfare. Currently in a free, open Beta period. Dogfight enemies fully autonomous or remotely manned in the endless fight for the skies of the 21st century. Many features are planned and in production for Anubis, and new Beta builds will be uploaded monthly. Release is currently scheduled for Late 2014. Continue reading
Patrouille de France Aerobatic Team- Video
The Patrouille Acrobatique de France (French pronunciation: [patʁuj akʁɔbatik də fʁɑ̃s], French Acrobatic Patrol), also known as the Patrouille de France or PAF, is the precision aerobatic demonstration team of the French Air Force. Continue reading
New Multispectral and Hyperspectral Processing from MosaicMill
EnsoMOSAIC photogrammetry software now supports multispectral imagery collected by the Tetracam Mini-MCA 4, 6 or 12 –band and other similar cameras, and hyperspectral imagery of Rikola cameras up to 32 bands. The Rikola camera is the world’s smallest and lightweight hyperspectral frame camera suitable both for fixed wing and rotary wing UAS.