Military
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has completed the first production-representative MQ-9B SkyGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). First flight of this aircraft took place on March 30, 2020 at GA-ASI’s Flight Operations Facility in El Mirage, California. “With first flight of the production-representative aircraft, we remain on schedule for delivering
C-UAS
Northrop Grumman Defense Systems has completed US government testing of its programmable Light Weight 30 mm Proximity Sensing Ammunition (LW30 PROX) round, and is moving towards qualification and fielding of the round to US Army and US Marine Corps air defence echelons within the year. A company-funded development, which draws
Leonardo is extending its training services capabilities to include rotorcraft unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to provide 360° training solutions to its growing customer base for maximised mission effectiveness and safety. The Company has recently obtained an Authorized Training Organization Certificate for UAS released by ENAC (Italian National Civil Aviation Authority)
Research
The FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University has announced the final three teams have been selected in the first-ever FirePoint C3 Challenge. With a combined $35,000 in funding to bring their concepts to life, the three teams will now begin putting their heads—and designs—together, collaborating to
Regulations
The Japanese government plans to establish a licensing system for operating drones when the flights are beyond the operator's line of sight. The proposal comes as the government hopes for increased usage of unmanned vehicles for purposes such as delivering daily necessities and medicine, or assisting security patrols
Business
FLIR Systems, Inc. announced that the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment has procured one of the company’s Black Hornet Vehicle Reconnaissance Systems (VRS) as part of an innovative base protection program. The order represents the first sale of an integrated VRS system for FLIR. The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)
Electronic Sub-Systems
A small, inexpensive and highly accurate gyroscope, developed at the University of Michigan, could help drones and autonomous cars stay on track without a GPS signal. “Our gyroscope is 10,000 times more accurate but only 10 times more expensive than gyroscopes used in your typical cell phones. This gyroscope
Business
UAV Navigation, a Spanish company in Flight Control Systems Solutions to UAVs, has signed a collaboration Agreement with Abionica Solutions-specialized company in engineering systems, avionics and UAVs Certification areas, to achieve their customers’ systems certification. One of the biggest challenges to UAV providers and operators in this market is the
Commercial
TerraView, a California-based unmanned aircraft system (UAS) development and manufacturing company, has unveiled the RangePro X8P - Pixhawk, a follow-up model to last year's RangePro X8, now with system components and options that meet federal government and Department of Defense (DoD) guidelines. Like its predecessor, the RangePro X8P
Commercial
Daewoo Engineering and Construction has announced that it would acquire a 30 percent stake in a local racing drone startup company, AstroX as part of its “Build Together Startups” program initiated in August last year. The details of financial terms were not disclosed. AstroX is a local drone maker capable
First Responders
Drones are being used in a variety of ways around the world in face of the current pandemic - mainly to inform, enforce restrictions and to sanitise. Rather than dozens of individual posts, we're collated some highlights into this one mega-post to hopefully make it all more easily
A ‘pandemic drone’ to remotely monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory conditions is being developed by the University of South Australia (UniSA) in partnership with a Canadian company. The drone will be fitted with a specialised sensor and computer vision system that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates,