Commercial
The Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is expanding its unmanned aircraft systems capabilities to now include sports and entertainment operations with the help of Salina’s professional indoor football team. The campus’s Applied Aviation Research Center, which is a hub for UAS exploration, is collaborating with the Salina Liberty
Military
Israeli startup APG has unveiled the Peres, an innovative family of UAVs, with breakthrough technology, operations, and logistics. The Peres UAV can fly horizontally and vertically, transitioning from vertical take-off to horizontal flight and from horizontal flight to vertical landing - thanks to APG’s patented feat of engineering. The
Business
Egypt is to acquire and field the AeroVironment (AV) RQ-20B Puma II AE tactical unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the US Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed on 16 March. A Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal for an undisclosed number of systems valued at USD 9.1 million has been awarded
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has just published report ‘FAA Aerospace Forecast Fiscal Years (FY) 2018-2038’ in which it projects that the country’s commercial, small, non-model fleet of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones is set to grow from 110,604 in 2017 to 451,800
Business
Korean mobile carrier LG Uplus will foster drone business as one of its new growth drivers by expanding its fledgling aerial robotics to a wide range of businesses in the public and private sectors, including transportation, logistics and safety inspections, powered by its nationwide wireless network. The company officially added
Commercial
The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is planning the first dedicated high-speed rail system in the U.S. When completed, it will enable passengers to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours, at speeds greater than 200 mph. Two segments of high-speed right-
Military
Russia has started tests of a new unmanned helicopter that can perform both reconnaissance and combat functions for use by the Russian army in Syria and other hot zones, according to Rostec, one of Russia’s largest state and defense corporations (and the designer of the new model). Representatives of
Military
The US Army has eliminated the need to do lengthy pre-flight checks for its unmanned aerial vehicles by applying artificial intelligence algorithms on top of existing software programs. “They call it an unmanned vehicle because there’s no pilot sitting up in it, but the pilot it is sitting
Military
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) graduated its first indigenously trained unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots on 2 March. It announced three days later that the five new pilots had received their wings following about two years of training at the 401 Flying Training School (FTS) in Kaduna. After completing an
Events
“The message of this whole conference is, the FAA is open for business,” said Derek Kan, undersecretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, summing up the Federal Aviation Administration’s stance at the third annual FAA UAS Symposium, cosponsored by AUVSI. FAA official said repeatedly that they
Patents
Walmart earlier this month applied for a patent for "drone pollinators" that would fill in for the declining population of bees that now help fertilize the crops needed to produce the food sold by Walmart and other grocers. Bee populations are shrinking rapidly, with scientists pointing to pesticides
Commercial
Hundreds of feet above a snow-covered field, a boxy black device covered in propellers hovers next to the enormous outstretched blade of a wind turbine. From a corner of the machine, a nozzle sprays a liquid across the surface of the blade in a rapid smooth zigzag motion like