WaveRider unmanned hypersonic vehicle achieved the longest air-breathing, scramjet-powered hypersonic flight in history May 1, flying for three and a half minutes on scramjet power at a top speed of Mach 5.1. Continue reading
Robotic Insects Make First Controlled Flight
In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered for a moment on fragile, flapping wings, and then sped along a preset route through the air. Continue reading
US Navy’s First Squadron of Manned & Unmanned Aircraft
The Navy’s Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 35 last week became the first composite expeditionary helicopter squadron to include both manned and unmanned aircraft. HSM-35 will operate both the manned, multi-mission MH-60R Seahawk and the MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft. Continue reading
Insect-Eye Camera Offers Wide-Angle Vision for Nano UAS
New “insect eye” cameras could someday help small UAS to see into every corner of a battlefield or give tiny medical scopes an all-around view inside the human body. A team of researchers from the United States has constructed such a camera, which offers an almost 180-degree field of view using hundreds of tiny lenses. Continue reading
Five-Axis Gyro-Stabilized Camera Platform with Precision Fiber Optic Gyro
A new advanced five-axis gyro-stabilized camera platform, called the C520, was developed by a California company called Gyro-Stabilized Systems (GSS) to suit the needs of sports production companies, movie production companies, broadcast media, law enforcement agencies, surveillance operations, and utility companies. Continue reading
US Wants to Buy Brimstones for Reapers
The US Air Force is looking at equipping its Reaper unmanned aircraft with a British-developed, man-in-the-loop missile better able to reduce collateral damage than the current weapons carried by the machine, according to sources. Continue reading
US Air Force Space Commander Challenges Status Quo
In the recent Space Symposium’s opening keynote speech, General William Shelton called for change with statements that the status quo isn’t a reasonable option anymore and that he struggles with “naysayers”. Continue reading
First Authorised RPAS Flight in an Urban Environment in Italy
The recent technological development of mini RPAS has opened large new opportunities for both surveyors and other Geomatic professionals in the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing. Continue reading