Commercial
Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) demonstrated its outstanding capabilities to a large European oil and gas corporation during demanding trials in Rivers State, Nigeria, from 27 to 30 January 2019. The international oil and gas industry has shown increasing interest in employing UAS to effectively monitor and
Testing
RMIT University engineers, with the Defence Science and Technology Group, have created a waterproof drone that can land on sea. The drone, known as Black Kite, has been nominated for a National Defence Innovation Award at the Avalon International Airshow. RMIT University’s project lead, Dr Abdulghani Mohamed, said Black
Testing
Complex electronic warfare (EW) platforms - such as the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler - could soon release swarms of drones from the aircraft, allowing the smaller vehicles to fly ahead to scout out for radar and other battlefield emitters, and potentially even take part in electronic attack missions
Data Links & Communications
On December 4,2018, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) demonstrated a complete MQ-9B mission without the use of a Launch and Recovery Element (LRE) Ground Control Station (GCS). Specifically, preflight checks were conducted through engine start using only the Expeditionary Command & Control (XC2) portable laptop, and subsequently, the
Testing
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Raytheon Deutschland GmbH based in Freising, Germany, have successfully proven the performance of a recently developed Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) sensor called the Advanced Radar Detection System (ARDS). The payload was integrated in a wing-mounted pod and test-flown on an MQ-9 RPAS. “We’re
Testing
Planck Aerosystems (Planck Aero) recently received authorization from Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar, Air Traffic Control (ATC) to test the Shearwater sUAS in controlled airspace and at night. Planck’s Shearwater sUAS repeatedly preformed successful autonomous takeoffs and precision landings onto a moving, off-road ground vehicle with centimeter-level accuracy
Commercial
The first test flights to establish the principles for the National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC) have successfully taken place at Cranfield Airport. NBEC is a collaboration between Cranfield University and Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd that aims to create an experimentation corridor that will enable drones
Testing
Taiwan's Navy held its first ever fly-over demonstration using the locally manufactured Albatross unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the southernmost county of Pingtung Thursday, testing the remote controlled UAV's reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities as part of a joint military operation. The drone, developed by National Chung-Shan
Transport
Rakuten, one of Japan's leading e-commerce platforms, has announced that it will start delivering packages via drones in sparsely populated areas during the fiscal year beginning in April, now that the country has eased regulations on such flights. "We will make regular deliveries during the 2019 fiscal
Transport
JD.com, China’s largest online retailer, announced the completion of Indonesia’s first government approved drone flight – a breakthrough for drone delivery in Southeast Asia. The successful pilot opens the door for future commercial drone use in Indonesia and the Southeast Asia region, subject to further regulatory approvals. Representatives
Testing
Multivista, part of Hexagon, has announced a partnership with DroneDeploy, a cloud software platform for commercial drones, to expand project management capabilities for the construction industry.
Testing
Indra and its partner Gaerum have just reached a key milestone in the development of the optionally manned Targus aircraft: the start of simulated flight tests to validate the design of the aircraft's critical systems. Specifically, they have begun studying the flight control, navigation and mission systems at