Testing
The Navy and Marine Corps plans to field a cargo unmanned aircraft system are moving forward as the first of two potential UAS helicopters landed at Pax River, July 1. The Navy and Marine Corps Multi-Mission Tactical Unmanned Air Systems programme office (PMA-266) coordinated the arrival of Lockheed
Testing
Kansas University’s school of Aerospace Engineering (KUAE) has used MTM®45-1 prepreg from Advanced Composites Group (ACG) to build a fleet of Meridian UAS designed to monitor the flow of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. KUAE selected ACGs MTM45-1 for the Meridians wings, empennage and fuselage
Business
The US Air Force has awarded L-3 Communications Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah, a $27,936,509 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract in direct support of data link communications activities including the Automated Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance (ARGUS)-Imaging System. The contract is to provide the research, development,
Military
France and Britain recently announced they would be postponing a decision on a joint development project for next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles for 12-18 months to consider their options. Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, discussed European UAS programmes with the
Testing
No country has intensified its research in recent years faster than China - now every major manufacturer for the Chinese military has a research centre devoted to UAS. Much of this work remains secret, but it is clear that China is determined to catch up — by building equivalents to the leading
Solar Impulse HB-SIA landed back home in Switzerland at the weekend following a flight powered exclusively by solar energy. The flight marked the end of the European solar flights campaign that took Solar Impulse’ team to Brussels and to the Paris Air Show. The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype,
Testing
Dassault released photographs of the Neuron UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) demonstrator in final assembly at Istres, France, and confirmed that the six-nation collaborative programme is on schedule. All sub-assemblies have been delivered, including the low-observable parts of the structure coming from Dassault’s Argenteuil and Biarritz
Testing
The US Navy is one step closer to demonstrating the first carrier-based recoveries and launches of an autonomous, low-observable relevant unmanned aircraft. Aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) July 2, a team from the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System programme office (PMA-268) accomplished the historical first
Testing
This video of ‘spectacularly unsuccessful’ experiments performed at the GRASP Lab was posted on YouTube last week - it could well have been a sequence from a 'video gags' TV show... The team at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, has been good at communicating its success with
Military
The U.S. Air Force wants its airborne sensors to do some preliminary analysis work automatically before transmitting that information back to intelligence analysts, a service official said. Currently, the service's analysts who monitor intelligence feeds from unmanned aircraft watch mundane video footage for hours on end without
Military
Chinese Internet pictures reveal a new unmanned aircraft with a diamond-shape wing structure - a joined wing and tail that could considerably increase range and payload and produce better handling at high altitudes. The new Xianglong is equipped with a jet engine mounted on top of the fuselage between the
Business
Federal authorities have warned corporate executives at AeroVironment that they are among about 60 targets suggested by members of an Al Qaeda-connected website forum. In the wake of the warning, AeroVironment and authorities in Monrovia have stepped up security at the company’s corporate headquarters on West Huntington Drive.