India’s aerospace hub, Bangalore is preparing for South Asia’s largest air show, AeroIndia 2011, which opens today, Wednesday, at the Yelahanka air base on the city’s outskirts. The eighth edition is the largest ever with about 675 exhibitors, including 380 from 29 countries and 295 domestic firms, participating in the five-day trade expo. There is a 70 percent increase in gross exhibition area to 75,000 square metres from 44,000 square metres in 2009 and total of 70,000 business delegates from 70 countries and 275,000 general visitors are expected.
India’s Nishant Finally Flies
The Nishant, India’s domestically-built unmanned aircraft, has successfully completed its series of confirmatory trials carried out at the Chandan ranges in Pokhran, Rajasthan, ahead of its induction. The Army conducted the successful flight trials before taking delivery of a set of four Nishants, together with ground systems.
US Air Force Orders 24 Reapers for $148 Million
The US Air Force Aeronautical Systems Centre at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has awarded a $148.3 million contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to provide 24 MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer Unmanned Aircraft. Continue reading
X-47 First Official Photos
On Feb. 4, 2011, Northrop Grumman Corporation and the U.S. Navy successfully conducted the first flight of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) aircraft. The flight, which was conducted under hazy skies at Edwards Air Force Base in California, began at 2:09 p.m. PST and lasted 29 minutes. The aircraft will remain at Edwards AFB for flight envelope expansion before transitioning to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. later this year. There, the system will undergo additional tests in preparation for carrier trials in 2013. Continue reading
UK Association Seeks Members’ Comments
The CAA has invited the UK UAS Industry to offer suggestions, improvements and amendments to the current version of CAP722, Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace – Guidance, 4th Edition.
UAVS is collating comments from its members with the intent of submitting these comments to the CAA in the middle of February 2011.
Yale Team Develops Synthetic Vision for Real-Time Object Recognition
A research team headed by Dr. Eugenio Culurciello, associate professor of engineering at Yale University, has developed a field programmable gate array (FPGA) processor that has been specifically designed for artificial vision. It operates about 100 times faster than a laptop computer, effectively bringing supercomputing power to synthetic vision. A system using this FPGA would be capable of analysing full-motion video in real-time. It could simultaneously monitor multiple video streams, looking for certain objects or behaviours with clear possibilities for UAS applications.
US Air Force Wants Hybrid-Powered One-Man UAS
The U.S. Air Force is calling for industry to build a hybrid-powered unmanned aircraft able to be carried and operated by only one person on battlefield situational awareness missions. It should weigh less than 20 pounds and be able to carry a 4-pound electro-optical payload on missions over rough terrain for at least four hours. The total cost of the programme is expected to be about $2.2 million.
Aurora Centaur Begins Flight Test Programme
Aurora Flight Sciences announced that the Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA) has begun its flight test programme. The first fully-configured Centaur made its first flight on Saturday, January 22, 2011 from Aurora’s base at Manassas, Virginia.