Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, founded by Paul G. Allen, successfully completed the first flight of the world’s largest all-composite aircraft, the Stratolaunch. With a dual fuselage design and wingspan greater than the length of an American football field, the Stratolaunch aircraft took flight at 0658 PDT from the Mojave
Accidents
A British Army Watchkeeper drone stalled itself and crashed into the sea on a bad weather flight test, military investigators have said – though most of the wreckage was never found. The unmanned aircraft, tail number WK042, fell from the sky in February 2017 while trialling a new ice detection system.
Training
The U.S. Army has completed its New Equipment Training (NET) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky for the MQ-1C ER Gray Eagle Extended Range. The training covered new maintenance procedures, manuals and ground support equipment associated with the MQ-1C ER, which is a new Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) produced
Propulsion
Parrot has announced ANAFI Thermal: the all-in-one, drone-based solution that provides easy to use, sophisticated and high-quality thermography (drone + sensor + software), with proven reliability and outstanding performance. Parrot has evolved its existing ANAFI platform to create this lightweight and easy-to-use solution specifically engineered to
Commercial
EMSA’s service of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) is now being used by the Danish authorities to monitor ship emissions around the area of the Great Belt where many large tankers transit on their way to and from the Baltic Sea. The RPAS will specifically measure the ships’ sulphur
Electronic Sub-Systems
With the help of a proprietary UgCS data logger and a laser altimeter, SPH Engineering has solved a problem that has been troubling the drone industry for quite some time: how to follow terrain without compromising effectiveness and precision. The new integration solution is especially significant for inspections, mining, engineering,
Business
Terra Drone Corporation has acquired a stake in Slovenia-based C-Astral Aerospace, which specializes in the manufacturing and services of fixed-wing small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), with a specific focus on high-productivity and high-endurance surveying, security, and remote sensing. Explaining the reason behind the investment, Toru
The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Technology Office, arm’s length body of the UK Ministry of Defense, intends to procure nano-unmanned aerial systems, according to a recent notice on the EU’s Tenders Electronic Daily (TED). According to a notice in the EU’s TED, the
A one-fifth-scale model of the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) now hangs from the ceiling of the new National Museum of the United States Army (NMUSA). The model was donated by Gray Eagle developer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and follows the $50,
Events
BAE systems sponsored a multi-university competition at Cranfield Airport. It brought together four teams of university students in a game of offence and defence using unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The teams from Cranfield University, University of Manchester and University of Strathclyde were challenged to develop the most effective solution
Testing
Through a partnership that spans across the Atlantic Ocean, two UAS companies successfully executed Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) commercial operations in Norway and look to bring them to the United States. SkySkopes, the North Dakota-based drone service provider, was drawn to the FX20 manufactured by Robot Aviation
Accidents
An Airbus Zephyr testing out a way to deliver internet services to remote communities has reportedly crashed in the Kimberley, Western Australia. The drone, part of an initiative dedicated to helping the social media giant become a global internet service provider, was supposed to demonstrate Facebook’s High Altitude Pseudo-