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
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
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
Testing
Northrop Grumman and Cassidian have confirmed that the Euro Hawk test-bed, the German version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk, will fly to Germany for payload integration and testing. The aircraft will be ferried to Germany as soon as July 2011, said Northrop Grumman. The test aircraft, a modified
Military
Innocon's MicroFalcon mini unmanned aircraft system has completed flight testing as it nears delivery to the Peruvian army. The MicroFalcon is a mini UAS with a duration of up to 4h and ceiling of 15,000ft (4,580m). "The MicroFalcon has demonstrated its long-endurance, wide-area
Testing
AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, and GE Aviation announced that the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System has completed a flight demonstration using the GE Flight Management System (FMS), a four-dimensional trajectory FMS certified for use in manned commercial aircraft. The
Testing
French armaments agency (DGA) has contracted for several VTUAS demonstrations. Among them is a Thales-led effort to work with Boeing’s Unmanned Littlebird (a modified AH-6i) to explore various challenging elements of VTUAS operations on land and at sea. The Unmanned Littlebird is currently undergoing a series of
Testing
The Boeing Phantom Eye high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned airborne system completed 12 days of ground vibration and structural mode interaction tests this month at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Phantom Eye is being prepared for its first flight, scheduled for
Control Stations
Elbit Systems announced that it has completed a series of successful tests of its Skylark I LE mini/man-pack UAS using the Dominator hardware to control and operate the UAS. During the tests, the Skylark was operated by a new cutting edge lightweight Forward Ground Control Station (FGCS) which
Commercial
Our Japanese isn’t that fluent, but we gather that the machine has been developed by technology research section of Japanese Self Defence Forces and that its Maximum Speed is about 40mph. It took a year and a half to develop, and it can be used for indoor/outdoor search
Testing
DARPA has just released this video chronicling the development of a “hummingbird” flyer by Aerovironment from concept to prototype demonstration and introduction to the public. A number of difficult design and engineering challenges were overcome in the course of the programme, particularly in the wing structure, propulsion and control actuators.
Military
The Manned/Unmanned Systems Integration Capability (MUSIC) is an initiative designed to bring together both types of systems to interoperate and share a common operating picture among pilots, UAS operators and troops on the ground. MUSIC will include a demonstration at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in