Business
senseFly has announced new strategic partnerships. The organisations include Trimble and Microsoft and demonstrate the capability and suitability of senseFly’s fixed-wing drones and drone sensors for precision agriculture. “Trimble and Microsoft are major players in the agriculture sector, and these relationships are a testament to senseFly’s drones
Business
AeroVironment, Inc. announced the U.S. Army awarded the company a firm-fixed-price contract on June 6, 2019 to begin radio frequency modifications on its currently deployed Raven. The initial base delivery order is $862,488, with potential contract options valued up to $55 million. “AeroVironment engineered and manufactures
Commercial
In an effort to provide UAS support for marine mammal disentanglement response efforts in Sweden, Oceans Unmanned Inc. (OU), the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) and DARTdrones have expanded their freeFLY initiative into the country. Through the freeFLY program, which was launched in 2018, networks of local volunteer drone operators that
Business
BAE Systems was awarded research and development funding through the U.S. Army to create an advanced radar jamming technology. The technology aims to improve air survivability and mission effectiveness for U.S. Army rotary-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) by detecting and defeating complex and unknown threats
Testing
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced that it is working with the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) in Greece to conduct a series of demonstration flights for European countries in December. Flights will base out of the HAF’s site in Larissa and use a GA-ASI MQ-9 Guardian
Business
Leonardo is accelerating the progress of technology and innovation in autonomous flight by investing in Skydweller Aero Inc., a US/Spanish start-up specialising in large-scale solar-powered unmanned air systems. The initiative will result in the development and deployment of the Skydweller drone, the world’s first fully
The US Marine Corps has narrowed the list of requirements for its proposed large unmanned aerial system (UAS) and is teaming with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on an unusual program to accelerate development of the technologies the UAS would need. Although the Marines operate a variety of small and
The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California took delivery of the Navy’s first ever hydrogen fuel cell powered rotary-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) on 25 October 2019. The six-rotor UAS “HYCOPTER” has a blade tip-to-blade tip diameter of 7 feet, a takeoff weight of about
National Associations
European standards agency EUROCAE approved the creation of Working Group 115 on Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) on 25 October 2019. WG-115 is established to develop standards to support the safe and harmonised implementation of Counter-UAS Systems into airport and ANSP systems. The scope of the WG is
Business
After the successful two-month maritime surveillance services of Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100 for the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) extends the contract to the end of the year. EMSA’s CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air
Agriculture
John Deere and Volocopter are presenting the first large drone adapted for agricultural use at AGRITECHNICA - a demonstrator model of the VoloDrone equipped with a John Deere crop protection sprayer, which is ready for its first field flight. Featuring a potential payload of 200kg, the VoloDrone is able to cover
Commercial
Researchers from the Shenyang Institute of Automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences presented a drone, designed to repair and maintain skyscrapers, a type of building that is becoming increasingly common in large Chinese cities. The team demonstrated the device at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS