Testing
Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego is joining the U.S. Air Force Sand Dragon UAV programme to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other roadside bombs. Northrop Grumman won a $26.2 million contract Friday for the Air Force Sand Dragon B programme to develop and
Accidents
Engineers and scientists monitoring the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, which was designed to fly at 20 times the speed of sound, lost contact with the vehicle midway through a scheduled 30-minute flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Source: LA Times
Testing
DARPA’s second flight test of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 is scheduled to launch today. The flight window is between 7:00am – 1:00 pm PDT from Vandenberg Air Forc Base, California, aboard an Air Force Minotaur IV rocket. “Assumptions about Mach 20 hypersonic flight were made from
Commercial
Canada is deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft to the High Arctic for the first time, as part of the largest military exercise ever in the Far North. Catapult-launched Boeing ScanEagle similar to those used by the Canadian army for surveillance in Afghanistan are to assist in a major air disaster
Testing
EOS, the world-leading manufacturer of laser-sintering systems, is developing UAV parts and promoting the use of laser-sintering as a competitive business strategy. Laser-sintering involves no tooling, and very little machining or fixturing, making it highly cost-effective and speedy for the low production runs of most
Testing
A U.S. Navy F/A-18D surrogate aircraft emulated an autonomous, unmanned aircraft as it performed several approaches to arrested landings on the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) on 2 July. The carrier landing test included the use of new Precision GPS and Tactical Targeting
Propulsion
Boeing is currently testing a Ford Motor Co. turbo-charged 2.3 liter four-cylinder engines that has been modified to run on liquid hydrogen, two of which will eventually be fitted to the Phantom Eye. At this point in the testing process, Boeing engineers have attached the power plant
Testing
Army Recognition posted this video proving that Euro Hawk did indeed land successfully in Manching, Germany, July 21, 2011. The EURO HAWK took off on July 20 at 2:50 PDT (11:50 Central European Summer Time) from Edwards Air Force Base, California, and landed at 10:06 Central European
Testing
A team, led by Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan of the University of Southampton, believes that 3D printing will soon allow unmanned aircraft to go from the drawing board to flight in a matter of days. No longer, they say, will one design of UAS be repeatedly manufactured on a
Commercial
Aerovisión Spain has supplied an unmanned aircraft used in trials of monitoring the Spanish coast, within the remit of the WIMAAS (Wide Maritime Area Surveillance) project, financed by the European Union. This is the first time that an aeroplane of a non-military nature has taken part in controlling European
Testing
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and BP Exploration Alaska demonstrated the use of a three-pound unmanned aircraft, the Aeryon Scout, as a way of gathering 3-D aerial data to aid in oil spill clean up efforts. Through the use of this technology, oil spill responders can
Lighter Than Air
Raytheon Company's aerostat system - Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensors (JLENS) - recently completed a successful endurance test. "Providing long endurance surveillance for cruise missile defense is a very important capability of JLENS," said David Gulla, vice president for Global Integrated Sensors at Raytheon