Business
Lilium GmbH has entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Qell Acquisition Corp., a publicly listed special purpose acquisition company. Qell, led by Barry Engle, a former president of General Motors North America, is focused on developing next-generation, sustainable mobility. Upon closing of the transaction, the company will
Video
Northrop Grumman's stealth aircraft that was built in secrecy during the 1980s represents a major milestone in surveillance aircraft technology. Tacit Blue — nicknamed “the whale” for its unusual shape — was an experimental prototype that demonstrated that aircraft could spy on enemy operations without being detected by radar. During
Video
The Piper PA-48 Enforcer is an American turboprop-powered light close air support aircraft built by Piper in the 1970s. It is a development of the World War II-era North American P-51 Mustang fighter. The Enforcer concept was originally created and flown as the Cavalier Mustang by
Accidents
An MQ-9 pilot pulled a wrong lever as the Reaper was taking off in Syracuse, N.Y., causing the remotely piloted aircraft to lose fuel supply and crash in June 2020, according to an Air Force investigation. The MQ-9 was “significantly damaged” at a cost of $6.085
Research
A drone slams into a windshield. The drone's shell cracks, and the windshield shudders. Pieces of a propeller snap off. But the windshield doesn't shatter. Most safe drone flights aren’t supposed to end in crashes. But this crash is unfolding in one of Virginia Tech’
Commercial
Japanese airline group ANA Holdings will launch a drone delivery service in the fiscal year through March 2023, using a vehicle developed by a German startup to carry daily necessities and medicines to Japan's remote islands and mountainous regions. ANA is preparing the service as the Japanese government
Testing
A few weeks ago, the Airbus VSR700 demonstrator achieved a test flight that pushed its speed limit to 60 kts (more than 110km/h), entirely opening its flight envelope at low speed. At the end of the test, the demonstrator had accumulated more than 10 flight hours. Thanks to this
Commercial
Everdrone will soon reach more residents with doorstep deliveries than any other drone company in the world thanks to extended permissions obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Sweden. In the coming weeks, 200,000 people in Sweden will have access to emergency medical deliveries of Automated External Defibrillators
Commercial
Ulju County of the southeastern city of Ulsan in South Korea has launched an ambitious artificial pollination project for pear blossoms to assist pear farms during the flowering season. The county held a drone demonstration for pollination last week. It plans to test the drones on three pear farms for
Business
General Atomics, San Diego, California, has been awarded a $22,164,736 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) - Track A program. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (71%); Louisville, Colorado (19%); Rockville, Maryland (3%); Seattle, Washington (4%); and Cullman, Alabama
Software
The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution for the command sequence issue identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned high-speed spin-up test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested multiple potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor modification
Research
As an instructor at the Brazilian Air Force Academy, Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonça was flying in formation when one of his colleagues experienced a bird strike to the leading edge of his aircraft’s right wing. It was a relatively minor incident — not nearly as dramatic as the U.S.