Military
QinetiQ recently demonstrated that a helicopter and drone can successfully operate as a team whilst airborne. The drone switches between independent and human-controlled reconnaissance according to Helicopter operator’s commands. The demonstration took place on 19 June over the army ranges on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, in the UK and featured
Military
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI) has announced that the industry team, made up of Australian partner businesses assembled for the development and delivery of MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPAS for Australia, will now be called “Team SkyGuardian Australia” (TSGA). This replaces the previous team name, “Team Reaper Australia.” GA-ASI announced
Commercial
A Virgin Atlantic flight with 455 passengers came within 300 ft of hitting a drone just seconds after taking off from Gatwick, a near-miss report reveals. The incident, which happened just days before the UK went into lockdown, came 15 months after the airport was closed for 30 hours and
Military
A picture has emerged online reportedly showing members of the Syrian Arab Army holding a FLIR Systems Black Hornet 3 drone that they captured in the northeastern corner of the country. Variants of this pocket-sized helicopter drone have seen increasing use, including within the U.S. military, in recent years,
Commercial
Parrot has announced that it is partnering with WISeKey International Holding Ltd, a global cybersecurity and IoT company, to integrate advanced digital security solutions into Parrot’s growing range of ANAFI drones. Public safety, security, defense and inspection professionals comprise a growing market share of drone users and demand the
UAM/UTM
Hidden Level, a venture-backed company specializing in low altitude airspace monitoring, announced a collaboration with Uber Elevate. Together the companies aim to advance the safety of urban air mobility operations in the U.S. national airspace system. Uber Elevate is Uber’s initiative to promote safe, reliable, clean, and affordable
News
What began as a project to improve land surveying, floodplain mapping, vegetation classification and endangered species management at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis has become a revolutionary innovation that could save the Air Force millions of dollars and countless hours of labor. The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center’
BVLOS
Emesent’s cutting-edge Hovermap simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) autonomous flight system, AL2 enables compatible drones to fly beyond communications range and venture beyond line of sight into unmapped areas.
News
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has published a proposal of airworthiness standards for the certification of the vast majority of light unmanned aircraft. These standards will greatly contribute to the safe operation of drones for a wide variety of services, such as parcel delivery in urban environments, railways and
Testing
EHang Holdings Limited announced that it has conducted aerial sightseeing trial flights in Yantai, a coastal city in East China. An EHang 216 took four passengers to the air for aerial sightseeing trips over the sea around the beautiful Fisherman’s Wharf in Yantai city, one of the many AAAA
News
Flirtey has announced that it has been granted a new patent critical to the safety of drone delivery. This granted patent describes safety-enhancing technologies such as landing a drone safely in the event of failure by using a parachute and steering the drone towards a safe location. For further information
Commercial
Drone spraying has been widely used in Southeast Asian countries such as China and Japan with great results. Now the trend is spreading to the US and Europe as well. Currently, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of drones used in these countries because of their higher