Commercial
Facebook has announced on its blog that it was no longer pursuing the completion of its solar-powered drone, Aquila, a high altitude platform station (HAPS) system. This has involved a lot of trial and error. When we started the Aquila program back in 2014, very few companies were involved in
Business
Boeing has announced its investment in Matternet, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup pioneering safe, on-demand unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivery operations in urban environments. Matternet's advanced logistics platform – combined with Boeing's expertise in complex logistics, integration and manufacturing capabilities – will further enable reliable, efficient cargo
Law Enforcement
CNC Technologies, an aviation technology and wireless communications company serving the law enforcement, military and government markets, announced its selection by the Michigan State Police to deploy a state-of-the-art mobile video network to support the department’s airborne law enforcement operations. Developed to speed and improve the ability of MSP
Commercial
As drones become increasingly autonomous, researchers and engineers are finding new ways to let unmanned aerial vehicles manage menial tasks that are usually relegated to crews of workers and valuable time being lost in the process. For researchers at the University of Leeds and University College London, the focus is
Commercial
Scientific study of the evolution of the southern end of the San Andreas Fault is of vital importance given the earthquake-prone nature of southern California. Mapping fault zones and land surface changes that resulted from previous earthquakes can deepen the understanding of hazards posed by the fault, including the possibility
Commercial
With bee populations continuing to decline, farmers, conservationists, and technologists alike are busy searching for a solution to help carry out pollination. A New York-based company recently lent a high-tech hand to assist a local apple orchard pollinate its 300 acres of tasty crops. The Beak & Skiff Apple Orchard
Business
Insitu has received a first-of-its kind contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to provide fire suppression services within the contiguous 48 states and Alaska using its ScanEagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Per the contract, Insitu will support manned aerial operations Including fire suppression, search and rescue,
Commercial
Ohio may soon be using unmanned aerial systems to communicate with smart vehicles and transportation infrastructure to monitor traffic and roadway conditions. As drone numbers soar, DriveOhio’s UAS Center is investing $5.9 million for a three-year study on how to safely fit these aircraft into an already congested
Commercial
Scientists with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire recently analyzed effectiveness of Unmanned Aerial Systems – that’s drones, to you and me – to collect meaningful information about the health and status of forests. “To form comprehensive understanding of natural environments and their patterns of
Commercial
Ball Aerospace demonstrated its methane remote sensing technology flying on board a piloted aircraft during the Stanford University and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Mobile Monitoring Challenge, resulting in high-resolution, geo-referenced imagery of simulated methane leaks in near real-time.The Mobile Monitoring Challenge is a new competition co-sponsored by Stanford University&
Commercial
A space launch every 3 hours may soon be possible using rockets carried on a fully autonomous unmanned airplane, a new startup company suggests. Alabama-based startup Aevum aims to per mission, using an air-launch system called Ravn. "The typical turn time, from landing to takeoff, for a commercial aircraft
Business
Black Swift Technologies (BST), a specialized engineering firm known for its purpose-built scientific aerial platforms, announced it has been awarded a NASA contract to develop an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to perform upper atmospheric observations of the planet Venus. BST is proposing a planetary aerial vehicle based on dynamic soaring,