Propulsion
Blue Force Technologies and the Air Force Research Laboratory have successfully completed a ground test for a novel carbon fiber composite propulsion flowpath system for BFT's Fury uncrewed fighter under the AFRL Bandit program. As announced in Mar 2022 BFT, an agile aerospace and defense company based in
Israel was behind a Saturday night drone attack that struck a defense facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan, according to a Sunday report. The Wall Street Journal cited US officials and people familiar with the matter to say Jerusalem directed the strike. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Transport
Telecommunications company KDDI, map-maker Zenrin and others in Japan launched a drone delivery service using U.S. aerospace company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet access service in Chichibu, a mountainous city in Saitama Prefecture. By connecting a drone to the Starlink service that provides a stable communication environment even
Test flights of Georgian-Polish unmanned aerial vehicles have been successfully completed, the press service of the Georgian government reports. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Defense Minister Juansher Burchuladze, and Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri attended the test flight demonstration. The drones are manufactured by Delta-Webe LLC, a joint venture
Arms experts say high-tech components made by companies in the United States, Switzerland and other Western countries have been found in drones and missiles used by Russia in the war in Ukraine. In August 2022, a report by the defence think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) presented a
UAM/UTM
On 23 January 2023, the Port of Rotterdam Authority started organising the airspace for drone use. To this end, the Airspace Centre was set up on the 14th floor of the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s offices. In a pilot arrangement and via an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system, this
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for safely integrating drones into the national airspace system—a complex network that includes airports, aircraft, and air traffic control facilities. FAA has developed various planning documents to manage its drone integration efforts but has not developed a comprehensive strategy. GAO found that
Research
The MIT Lincoln Lab has produced some new devices for aircraft and drones that make some impressive efficiency gains and are radically quieter. “The toroidal propeller allows a small multirotor unpiloted aircraft, or drone, to operate more quietly than current drones that use propeller forms unchanged since the beginning of
Testing
Turkey’s first indigenously designed and produced unmanned fighter aircraft successfully passed the system identification test during its second flight. Selçuk Bayraktar, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Baykar directed the test flight of the National Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle System (MIUS), named Kızılelma ("Red Apple"), in Çorlu
Military
The MQ-4C Triton test team conducted the first flight to assess the unmanned aircraft system’s ability to fly with wing ice accumulation Jan. 25 at Patuxent River. This was the first of approximately 15 flights planned through spring 2023 that will clear Triton to fly in icing conditions.
Patents
Hoverfly Technologies Inc. announced that it has been issued U.S. Patent No. 11,518,542 from the U.S. Patent Office for the "Landing Structure for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle." One of the largest concerns with UAVs has been determining where the system will land when it
The government of Rwanda has secured €37 million (approx. Rwf41 billion) loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) to transform more public services digitally and develop the country’s drone industry. The related agreement is also complemented with a €1.2 million grant to mobilize French expertise in project implementation.