Business
The Drone Racing League (DRL), which is one of the foremost organizations trying to turn drone racing into the next NASCAR, announced a new competition for teams to develop AI pilots for its aircraft. With backing from aerospace firm Lockheed Martin, DRL wants to recruit developers from around the world,
Commercial
Golfers at the pristine King’s Walk golf course in Grand Forks will soon have the choice of ordering food and beverages and having it delivered via drone on the golf course. Flytrex, an Israeli drone logistics company, announced a partnership Wednesday, Sept. 5, with King’s Walk and Ease
Business
REIN's DroneInsurance.com, a digital drone insurance portal, has announced its collaboration with AeroVironment to offer insurance coverage options for the Quantix commercial drone platform. Quantix, together with the AeroVironment Decision Support System™ (AV DSS), provides an integrated drone and data analytics ecosystem designed specifically for precision agriculture.
Commercial
Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, has announced a cooperative agreement with NASA for an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) flight demonstration in the National Airspace System (NAS) expected to be conducted in 2020. The cooperative agreement outlines the goal of progressing toward routine commercial UAS operations in the NAS. Bell
Business
U.S. Air Force electro-optical surveillance experts needed next-generation multispectral targeting sensor systems for the MQ-9 Reaper attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other reconnaissance aircraft. They found their solution from the Raytheon Co. Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air
UAM/UTM
Altiscope, the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) group from A³ by Airbus focused on enabling the future of aviation, has released Blueprint for the Sky: The Roadmap for the Safe Integration of Autonomous Aircraft. The Blueprint represents months of careful analysis by Airbus of the future needs for the airspace, the
Business
Sentera, a Minneapolis-based digital agriculture technology provider, announces that it has raised an additional $14 million in Series A funding. A premier group of food, biosciences, and agriculture investment firms, Chicago-based S2G Ventures, New York-based Continental Grain Company, and Washington, DC-based Middleland Capital, lead Sentera’s
Business
PrecisionHawk, Inc., a provider of drone technology for the enterprise, has announced that it has purchased both HAZON, Inc. and InspecTools Inc. These businesses specialize in the delivery of inspection services and technology for the energy industry and bring demonstrated domain expertise to enable tighter integration between the collection and
Propulsion
BlueBird Aero Systems recently revealed a new VTOL Capability of its long range, long endurance ThunderB tactical UAS (~30Kg, 4m wing-span), only 2 months after exposing an exceptional Cargo Release Capability of the ThunderB UAV at Eurosatory 2018. The new dual-hybrid ThunderB VTOL is capable of taking-off
Researchers in Korea have made a new algorithm for enabling a single robotic unmanned aerial vehicle to herd a flock of birds away from a designated airspace. This novel approach allows a single autonomous quadrotor drone to herd an entire flock of birds away without breaking their formation. Professor David
Video
Slot position of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, performing at Seafair Festival 2018 in Seattle. The Blue Angels are scheduled to perform more than 60 demonstrations at more than 30 locations across the U.S. and Canada in 2018. U.S. Navy video by Mass
Weapons Systems / Lasers
Officials of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Albuquerque, N.M., announced contract modifications Friday to General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems in San Diego, and to the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in Huntsville, Ala., to push forward with the Low Power Laser Demonstrator (LPLD) project. LPLD seeks