An MQ-9 pilot pulled a wrong lever as the Reaper was taking off in Syracuse, N.Y., causing the remotely piloted aircraft to lose fuel supply and crash in June 2020, according to an Air Force investigation. Continue reading
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Virginia Tech Tests Windscreen Drone Impacts
A drone slams into a windshield. The drone’s shell cracks, and the windshield shudders. Pieces of a propeller snap off. But the windshield doesn’t shatter. Continue reading
ANA and Wingcopter to Start Drone Deliveries as Japan Eases Regulations
Japanese airline group ANA Holdings will launch a drone delivery service in the fiscal year through March 2023, using a vehicle developed by a German startup to carry daily necessities and medicines to Japan’s remote islands and mountainous regions. Continue reading
Everdrone Expands Swedish Drone Defibrillator Service
Everdrone will soon reach more residents with doorstep deliveries than any other drone company in the world thanks to extended permissions obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Sweden. Continue reading
Artificial Pollination Using Drones in Korea
Ulju County of the southeastern city of Ulsan in South Korea has launched an ambitious artificial pollination project for pear blossoms to assist pear farms during the flowering season. Continue reading
General Atomics Gets $22M DARPA Rocket Contract
General Atomics, San Diego, California, has been awarded a $22,164,736 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) – Track A program. Continue reading
Mars Helicopter Gets Software Upgrade
The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution for the command sequence issue identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned high-speed spin-up test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested multiple potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor modification and reinstallation of Ingenuity’s flight control software is the most robust path forward. Continue reading
Embry-Riddle Studies Aircraft Wildlife Strikes
As an instructor at the Brazilian Air Force Academy, Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonça was flying in formation when one of his colleagues experienced a bird strike to the leading edge of his aircraft’s right wing. It was a relatively minor incident — not nearly as dramatic as the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 landing on New York’s Hudson River following a bird strike in 2009 — but it got Mendonca wondering about ways to reduce wildlife collisions with aircraft. Continue reading