Testing
Thales and DCNS are planning supplementary technology demonstrations of a system for automatic ship deck landing of unmanned aircraft. The decision is the result of a go-ahead from the DGA (French Defence Procurement Authority) -- a follow-on from the successful landing and deck-landing trials conducted in the United States last
Payloads
Researchers from Naval Air Systems Command, Eglin Air Force Base, and engineering company Navmar Applied Science Corporation are developing a weapons system for small unmanned aircraft. The petite, 13-foot MicroUAV Tigershark, already used for surveillance and reconnaissance, will be outfitted with an even smaller drone — developed by Air Force researchers
Testing
Battelle's anti-icing technology deploys carbon nanotubes into the plane's coating, which means it is lighter than traditional ice protection systems and can use much less power. It's applied using simple painting methods, so it can be sprayed on a variety of curved surfaces. The
Commercial
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi announced that the first airborne science missions using unmanned aircraft over the Gulf of Mexico were successfully completed during the week of October 10-17. Scientists with the Unmanned Aerial Systems Initiative at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and representatives from American Aerospace Airborne
Research
We first came across the ‘Unmanned Flying Ball from Japan” earlier this year in June. Now the Japanese Ministry of Defence Research Department has made an official launch at the Digital Content Expo in Tokyo last week. Fumiyuki Sato, Technical Official at TRDI, Ministry of Defence presented the machine to
Testing
IAI's Panther tiltrotor unmanned aircraft system is currently performing automatic take-off and landing tests, and in early 2012 will demonstrate its capabilities to potential customers. An Israel Aerospace Industries source said the company's development team has managed to solve problems with the transition between hovering and
Testing
Orbiter The two Israeli companies still contesting the Finnish armed forces' competition to select an unmanned aircraft system face two more rounds of evaluation. One will be held in Finland and the other in Israel within the coming weeks. Finnish evaluators will use the phase in Israel to learn
Testing
L-3 Unmanned Systems of Dallas has completed a series of capability enhancements to its Viking 400 unmanned aircraft system supplied to the US Special Operations Command under a 2009 contract. Added under the Block 1A upgrade are a new electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor turret and digital datalink. The MX-10
Research
A small hobby-type radio-controlled model aircraft is being transformed into a high-tech flight research aircraft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and will be used to develop such a ’sense-and-avoid’ application for smart phones. The aircraft, dubbed DROID for Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone, is the newest – and
VTOL
On 16 September, ESG Elektroniksystem-und-Logistik-GmbH together with Swiss UAV AG and the German Federal Police successfully conducted experimental flights with the Unmanned Mission Avionics Test Helicopter (UMAT) from a Federal Police ship in the Baltic Sea. With these flights, the companies continued their analyses and verifications on unmanned aircraft systems.
Testing
Lockheed Martin recently posted this video of the Lockheed Martin-Kaman's unmanned helicopter successfully completing the Navy's Quick Reaction Assessment. Source: YouTube
Military
Bell Helicopter has announced that its OH 58 Kiowa Warrior has successfully demonstrated several ground breaking capabilities that will enable interoperability among multiple aviation platforms, such as manned and unmanned aircraft. The exercise was conducted at the Manned Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) demonstration, sponsored by the US Army at