Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Vilt from Delta Company, 326 Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne”, 101st Airborne Division earned top honours as the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Soldier of the Year. The Army Aviation Association of America presented the award to Vilt for his excellence during the Joseph P.
Accidents
The Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana: AMI) lost an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over Libya on 20 November, the country's Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed. The General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper came down while flying over southern Tripoli. While the Libyan National
Commercial
A DJI drone came within 20m (65ft) of a passenger plane as it flew in to Gatwick Airport in the summer, an inquiry into near misses has found. UK Airprox Board (UKAB) said the pilot of the Airbus A320 shouted "drone" when he spotted the device, which was
Testing
Last week, members of the team at Guinn Partners worked with Doosan Mobility Innovations, in collaboration with Skyfire Consulting, and the US Department of Health, to execute a 43 mile open ocean medical drone delivery between St. Croix and St. Thomas. The flight took an hour and forty three minutes
Business
South Africa is investigating the alleged misappropriation of intellectual property rights belonging to state defense firm Denel, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) confirmed. The IP relates to air-to-air missiles, stand-off weapons, surface target missiles, air defense and unmanned aerial vehicle systems, the SIU told Reuters. “The focus
Commercial
Work will begin next month on Australia’s first residential apartment block to include a vertical take-off and landing space to accommodate flying taxis and delivery drones. Siskas will be the final apartment tower of the Taskers residential development in North Fremantle. The take-off and landing space will
A U.S. Army MQ-1C ER Gray Eagle Extended Range manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. performed a flight demonstration using a Dynetics GBU-69B Small Glide Munition (SGM) on August 21-22. The SGM is a lightweight munition with increased effective range. “The GE-ER operates at
The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses. A development of the earlier Gyrodyne, which had established a world helicopter speed record, the Rotodyne featured a tip-jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel
VTOL
The French Armament General Directorate (DGA) announced that Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100 is now fully integrated with French Navy Mistral class amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude. For the first time in Europe, a rotary wing Unmanned Air System (UAS) is fully operational and connected to the defence system of an
Testing
Boeing announced that its Australian subsidiary has used systems developed in that country to enable a pair of unmanned, subscale, jet-powered test aircraft to conduct a semi-autonomous teamed flight for the very first time. This is part of the development of the Airpower Teaming System for the Royal
Business
Yates Electrospace Corporation has announced the signing of a development contract (USSOCOM-SOF AT&L-ST-14-01-JS79) with the U.S. Special Operations Command entitled “Silent Arrow Airdrop Development”. Silent Arrow is the world’s first production-ready, 1-ton, autonomous cargo aircraft, which delivers up to
Commercial
As haze blanketed large tracts of Southeast Asia last month, office workers with Genting Plantations Bhd in Jakarta were investigating the source of the choking smoke more than a thousand kilometers away. Images collected from drones flying up to 400 meters (about 1,300 feet) above Genting’s oil palms