General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced the successful flight test of its Nightlighter airborne imaging system. A prototype Nightlighter system was successfully flight tested and demonstrated on a Twin Otter aircraft during the Olympus Flight Test sponsored by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) at China Lake,
Boeing and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) have demonstrated that an operator on the ground, using only a laptop and a military radio, can command an unmanned aircraft "swarm." Despite limited flight training, the operator was able to connect with autonomous UAS, task them
Commercial
MLB has announced that it has concluded a high-resolution assessment of carbon dynamics in seagrass and coral reef biomes in partnership with the UAV Collaborative to better understand the dynamics of vulnerable near shore environments. Over a 9-day period, MLB Bat 4 successfully flew six flights in Class
Testing
The Boeing Unmanned Little Bird H-6U helicopter successfully performed 14 autonomous take-offs and landings from a ship during flight tests last month. This is a significant milestone for a medium-size vertical-takeoff-and-landing UAS. For the tests, conducted from a private ship off the coast of
Business
UTC Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp.,has received a contract from AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems to supply Cloud Cap Technology autopilots, stabilized camera payloads, ground station software components and flight management software from its business in Hood River, Ore. These will be utilized for AAI Unmanned Aircraft
Testing
Insitu Inc. has announced the first flight of the US Navy and U.S. Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS) RQ-21A UAS. The 1-hour test flight of the UAS commenced at 1538 PDT on July 28 at an Insitu facility in eastern Oregon. “The government-industry
Air Robotics has introduced the Im IV-D (Four Delta), a hand-launched, small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) capable of carrying a wide variety of user-swappable payloads and able to survive demanding field environments.The Four Delta incorporates Air Robotics’ patent-pending Modular Payload Lifting System pod and AirRoplate
Business
The US Air Force has announced that the MLB V-Bat VTOL UAA has been selected for a Phase II SBIR award. They seek an aircraft that has an 8 ft. wingspan, 10 hour endurance, 55 lbs. gross take-off weight, and 70 mph cruise speed. The V-Bat'
Integrated Microwave Technologies, LLC, a Business Unit within the Vitec Group’s Videocom Division, and a leader in advanced digital microwave systems for MAG (Military, Aerospace & Government) markets, announces the formation of a technology partnership with Leptron, the leader in industrial robotic helicopters. IMT’s VSTx COFDM ultra-compact
Military
South Korea has allocated a budget of budget of $440M (500 billion Won) to develop unmanned combat aircraft."We're developing next-generation combat UAS and reconnaissance UAS simultaneously for Army units," a military source said on Monday. "About W500 billion has been earmarked for the
Kutta Technologies, Inc. announced the formal product launch of their modular Manned / Unmanned Teaming Kit (MUM-TK) for aviators controlling UAS.The MUM-TK was developed in partnership with the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) of Ft. Eustis, Virginia to expand the capabilities of manned aircraft by teaming them with
Propulsion
Goebler-Hirthmotoren KG (Hirth Motors) is launching a new UAS engine family based on Hirth’s 4102 100cc 2-stroke EFI engine that has flown over 15,000 successful missions in the EMT Luna UAS in Afghanistan and the Balkans. The 4102 was developed from a base King engine and