Accidents
A black-headed seagull brought down a drone over a school in south west Scotland during a roof survey which was being carried out at Stranraer Academy in July. Air Accidents Investigation Branch report stated that the UAS, a DJI Matrice M200, was being operated commercially on a roof survey of
Business
The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) announced last week that it had issued new guidance banning the use of agency grants to purchase drones and other unmanned aerial systems from foreign groups deemed threats. The guidance, issued Monday but made public on Thursday, is meant to address
First Responders
World championship tour surfer Matt Wilkinson had a close encounter with a shark last week while surfing at Sharpes Beach at Ballina, New South Wales. The welcome arrival of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) overhead alerted Matt via a warning over the speaker, at the same time a 1.5m
Testing
Leonardo, in a joint partnership with the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), successfully conducted a live trial of a ‘swarming drones’ capability. During the demo, a number of small, remotely-piloted aircraft equipped with Leonardo’s powerful electronic warfare (EW) jamming technology were used to confuse and overwhelm
News
uAvionix announced that it has been granted a new patent critical to safe and secure integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into National Airspace Systems (NAS). U.S. Patent 10,733,894, titled "Direct-Broadcast Remote Identification (RID) Device for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)" addresses the critical need for
Commercial
AeroVironment, Inc. announced that the Sunglider solar-powered high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) achieved key test milestones, including reaching an altitude of more than 60,000 feet above sea level and successfully demonstrating mobile broadband communication. Sunglider’s development and testing is funded by HAPSMobile Inc., a joint venture majority-owned by SoftBank Corp.
Business
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has been awarded a $950,000,000 ceiling Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (ID/IQ) contract for the maturation, demonstration and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software and algorithm development in order to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control
Testing
The China-developed Wing Loong-2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has completed the country’s first large UAV-supported emergency communication exercise, announced its developer, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic). The Wing Loong-2 successfully completed the exercise mission, flying continuously for around 20 hours across three provinces, according to the Avic.
News
The Aerospace Division of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it is using a reverse-engineered version of the American unmanned aerial vehicle RQ-170 to seed clouds. The move comes to tackle drought in parts of the country. Over the past couple of years, the IRGC’s Aerospace Division
UAM/UTM
Ciconia Ltd, an Israeli company specialising in mid-air conflict management systems, recently demonstrated C&CAS (Co-ordination and Collision Avoidance System) its UTM enabling technology ‘live in Harmony’ concept between a Helicopter and a Drone. The demonstration was held in an open field obstruction free zone; a car mounted with
Commercial
maxon has collaborated with drone startup Flybotix to develop performance-optimized brushless DC motors for a new kind of inspection drone. With the know-how gained from this and other projects, maxon is making inroads into the new UAV market, where the reliability and quality of components are becoming more important. Two
News
The thrilling story of a 1942 duel in the stratosphere between Germany's Junkers Ju-86 high-flying spy plane and a specially modified Spitfire in the hands of a daredevil prince. The Junkers Ju 86 was a German monoplane bomber and civilian airliner designed in the early 1930s, and employed