Participants flying unmanned aircraft systems at the Burning Man Festival (August 26 – September 2) have developed a set of best practices for flying at Black Rock City this year. The best practices came out of a July 17 “Drone Summit” at Burning Man headquarters that had 40 in attendance and an estimated 100 on a teleconference. Continue reading
Official Launch of 3D Robotics Semi-Pro Quadcopter
3D Robotics (3DR) has announced the availability of Iris, an advanced quadcopter with full GPS-guided autonomous capabilities. Designed to provide an “out-of-the-box” flying experience, Iris aims to bring the power of professional grade aerial robotics to the mass market. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS – Aviation History Video
Northrop Grumman just posted this 4 minute-plus video trumpeting its recent achievements with the X-47B UCAS – successful takeoff and land from the deck of a moving aircraft carrier. It links the take-off and touch-and-go sequences in May with July footage of arrested landings in July. Continue reading
Ice Protection Specialists Focus on Unmanned Aircraft
CAV Ice Protection’s engineering staff, recently relocated to New Century Airport, are increasing focus on the company’s expertise in developing ice protection for unmanned flight. Continue reading
US Air Force Faces Shortage of UAS Operators
The US Air Force is unable to keep up with a growing demand for pilots capable of operating UAS partly due to a shortage of volunteers, according to a new study. Continue reading
US Missile Defense Agency Tests UAS For Boost-Phase Targeting
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to continue testing the use of Reaper unmanned aircraft for ballistic missile target discrimination in the near term because taking that mission to space is still too costly. Continue reading
US Navy Builds Mission Control Centre for Maritime UAS Operations in Jacksonville, Florida
U.S. Navy officials plan to build a mission-control complex for unmanned maritime patrol aircraft at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Fla. The complex will provide command and control for the Navy’s future fleet of Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Continue reading
Lockheed Martin’s Transformer TX in Phase 3 of Development Process
With Transformer (TX), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is giving ‘off-road’ an entirely new meaning. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works® is leading a team with Piasecki Aircraft to develop the next generation of compact, high-speed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned payload delivery systems under the Transformer programme. Continue reading