Testing
Indra’s Pelican rotary wing UAS has received the Special Airworthiness Certificate (CAEE) by the Spanish State Aviation Safety Agency, a body within the Ministry of Public Works, to perform integration, test and demo flights. The certificate, first awarded in Spain for rotary wing UAS, implies that the Pelican system
Military
An $86.2 million contract award last month reveals that the US Air Force will seek to prove if airships can replace fixed-wing aircraft on some surveillance missions over Afghanistan. About nine months after the US Army launched its long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) programme, the air force awarded defence technology
Testing
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will award a sole source cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to New Mexico State University Physical Sciences Laboratory (NMSU/PSL). This contract is for the acquisition of facilities, materials and support for flight testing for the Vulture programme flight demonstrator (FD) air vehicle. This will be
Testing
Students at MIT have developed a real-time visual odometry system that can use a Kinect to provide fast and accurate estimates of a vehicle's 3D trajectory. This system is based on recent advances in visual odometry research, and combines a number of ideas from the state-of-the-art algorithms. It
Testing
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing on the European version of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk– the Euro Hawk – was performed recently by engineers with the 772nd Test Squadron at the Benefield Anechoic facility (BAF) at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Northrop Grumman and German government representatives participated as well. Although
Testing
Filmed at Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control inside the Flying Machine Arena, two Quadrotors demonstrate their extreme manoeuvrability by playing ball with a human, then with each other…
Propulsion
Stuttgart-based Festo claims to be inspired by nature, having deciphered bird flight with its Smart Bird. The ‘bird’ is highly aerodynamically efficient, even turning its head like real gulls do to refine aerobatic turns, and can take off and land by itself. Inspired by the herring gull, the Smart Bird
Testing
The Welsh Assembly Government has just launched a two year research and development programme to explore the potential for advanced remote sensing, using small unmanned aircraft, for use in land applications, primarily high input arable farming. The programme is called Project URSULA - UAS Remote Sensing for Use in Land
Testing
The AAI RQ-7B Shadow 200 Tactical UAS, which won the prestigious Performance-Based Logistics Award from the Secretary of Defence last autumn, continues to improve performance and efficiency after 600,000 combat hours in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We've taken cost very seriously and we've indoctrinated a
Testing
Boeing’s unmanned hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye HALE demonstrator aircraft has arrived at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Centre for assembly and preparations for flight tests. NASA Dryden is hosting the Boeing flight test operation, providing hangar facilities, engineering, ground test and test range support for the project. The aircraft is
Testing
Aviation Capital Enterprises, Inc. of Canada has entered into an exclusive contractual agreement with Lockheed Martin to design, develop, build, flight test and Federal Aviation Administration certify a family of hybrid airship. Based on Lockheed Martin's P-791, a fully functional manned flight demonstrator, the commercial 20 ton variant
Testing
Following a rigorous, five-week series of structural proof tests of the jet's airframe, the US Navy /Northrop Grumman test team have proven that the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System will be able to withstand all of the structural stresses and strains associated with takeoff, flight and landing – including