On 5 August, Congress passed a short-term FAA extension ending a two week partial shutdown of the FAA. The 14-day shutdown cost the federal government nearly $400 million in lost revenue because the FAA was not allowed to collect taxes on air tickets. The shutdown also furloughed approximately
Lighter Than Air
In recent years, airships have once again become a major force in aviation. The Pentagon has gone especially blimp-crazy, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into advanced -- and massive -- surveillance airships that can stay in the sky way longer than any unmanned aircraft. Here is a review of some
Payloads
Mercury Computer Systems is delivering its radar subsystems to Raytheon for Patriot Air and Missile Defence System upgrades. The upgrades support Raytheon's recently announced contracts for System upgrades for Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. Patriot is a combat-proven air and missile defence system chosen by 12 nations around
Testing
EOS, the world-leading manufacturer of laser-sintering systems, is developing UAV parts and promoting the use of laser-sintering as a competitive business strategy. Laser-sintering involves no tooling, and very little machining or fixturing, making it highly cost-effective and speedy for the low production runs of most
Military
Despite a spate of delays, second-guessing and cost overruns, the Global Hawk is once again on track to replace one of America's most noted aircraft: the U-2 spy plane, famed for its role in the cold war and more recently Afghanistan. The Air Force decided last
Research
Economic Development for Central Oregon and Oregon State University announced that they have signed an agreement to develop technologies related to unmanned aerial systems that will benefit OSU’s academic and research programmes, particularly natural resource management. Simultaneously, the agreement would help EDCO incubate new UAS start-ups and bring
Targets
Composite Engineering Inc. (CEi), announced that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract with the Government of the Republic of Singapore. The contract was established to supply High Speed Aerial Target Drones to the Ministry of Defence of Singapore. In addition to delivering the BQM-167Xi target drones,
Events
Highlight at The Black Hat Security Conference and DEFCON this year is an unmanned aircraft called the Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, or WASP. [Not to be confused with the WASP missile -Ed.] It’s an ex-U.S. Army target drone measuring over 6-feet in length and wingspan that
Testing
A U.S. Navy F/A-18D surrogate aircraft emulated an autonomous, unmanned aircraft as it performed several approaches to arrested landings on the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) on 2 July. The carrier landing test included the use of new Precision GPS and Tactical Targeting
Commercial
The News Corp’s The Daily has a drone that it’s sent out a few times. Taking footage for news-gathering purposes seems like a commercial use of a drone. I followed up with the FAA asking if News Corp was one of the companies with an experimental certificate.
Electronic Sub-Systems
Konkuk University in South Korea won the new NI LabVIEW FPGA Innovation Award for a novel autopilot system for a rotary unmanned aircraft to ensure on-course stability of a helicopter in a programmed flight path. The presentation was made at the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards ceremony at the
Business
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. reported operating results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 ended June 30, 2011. Fourth quarter fiscal 2011 revenues were $61.2 million, a decrease of $2.4 million from the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. Revenues from commercial customers decreased by $8.