Military
No country has intensified its research in recent years faster than China - now every major manufacturer for the Chinese military has a research centre devoted to UAS. Much of this work remains secret, but it is clear that China is determined to catch up — by building equivalents to the
Military
Dassault released photographs of the Neuron UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) demonstrator in final assembly at Istres, France, and confirmed that the six-nation collaborative programme is on schedule. All sub-assemblies have been delivered, including the low-observable parts of the structure coming from Dassault’s Argenteuil and Biarritz factories. Thierry Prunier,
Military
The US Navy is one step closer to demonstrating the first carrier-based recoveries and launches of an autonomous, low-observable relevant unmanned aircraft. Aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) July 2, a team from the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System programme office (PMA-268) accomplished the historical first carrier touchdown of an
Testing
This video of ‘spectacularly unsuccessful’ experiments performed at the GRASP Lab was posted on YouTube last week - it could well have been a sequence from a 'video gags' TV show... The team at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, has been good at communicating its success
Testing
The first Northrop Grumman MQ-4C broad area maritime surveillance (BAMS) aircraft is on track for rollout in the spring of 2012, with first flight that summer. The first prototype aircraft is being fitted with electronics at Northrop Grumman's factory in Palmdale, California. The wings, currently in Texas, will
Testing
Schiebel has announced that it has partnered with French shipbuilder DCNS for the purpose of deploying its Camcopter S-100 Unmanned Air System onboard their new Gowind class of OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel), L ADROIT which was launched in May. The Gowind Class L'ADROIT, previously known as Hermes, has
Military
Despite a dismal initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) report about the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30, the US Air Force reports a relatively high operational reliability rating. The USAF reports that Block 30 Global Hawks, operating from four bases for five combatant commands, are operating
Testing
The RQ-7B Shadow Unmanned Aircraft System conducted its first-ever test flight under the direction of NAWC Aircraft Division’s UAS Test Directorate at Webster Field, Md., June 21. "Having a RQ-7B at the UAS Test Directorate allows for the test and evaluation of system enhancements and ultimately provides the
Testing
The world imagined in a 1960 Science-Fiction TV Series took a step closer to reality with the announcment by Moller International, Inc., the developer of the Rotapower line of rotary engines and the Aerobot line of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, that the Federal Aviation Administration has accepted its application for Experimental
Propulsion
Austrian firm IAT21 (the Austrian Innovative Aeronautical Technology Research Company) describes its free-floating UAS project D-Dalus as, "a totally new form of airborne auto-motion". It hovers and flies without wings or rotors. It uses four, mechanically-linked turbines to provide propulsion. They're all running at 2,200
Testing
A decade-long investment in the unmanned, long-endurance A160 Hummingbird helicopter is set to enter a final proving phase at the end of the month. Boeing plans to deliver the first of 20 new production aircraft assembled in Mesa, Arizona by the end of June to a flight-test facility in Victorville,
Testing
Sikorsky hopes to demonstrate an optionally piloted resupply mission using a fly-by-wire-equipped UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopter by the end of this year. Jeff Pino, president of the Connecticut-based company, said the Sikorsky-built automatic flight-control augmentation system, which is packaged in an electronics box roughly 0.3 x 0.6m