Electronic Sub-Systems
Chris Norton spent 22 years as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot before he co-founded 2Excel Aviation in 2005. The UK company operates a fleet of stunt planes known as the Blades and is licensed as an airline, so it can take fare-paying passengers on ride-alongs as the planes do
VTOL
A team at Webster Field Annex is working briskly to support an urgent Navy request to weaponize the MQ-8B Fire Scout, marking the first time the Navy will arm an unmanned aircraft. The Fire Scout team and NAVAIR’s structures rotary-wing division personnel conducted the first of a series of
Propulsion
Boeing has announced that the Phantom Eye high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft has conducted its first medium-speed taxi test. The hydrogen-powered aircraft is designed for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and communications. The test was conducted March 10 at Edwards Air Force Base in coordination with the
Testing
Military radar experts at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems segment and partner Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems segment, both in El Segundo, California, will develop and install an advanced air-to-air and air-to-ground radar system for the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk Block 40 high-endurance unmanned aircraft under terms
Testing
Flight tests beginning in the mid-2000s have pioneered methods for automation in refuelling routines - summer 2012 may see tests of one unmanned aircraft refuelling another. "In-flight refuelling has proven invaluable to manned military aviation, and there’s no reason to expect that the same wouldn’t be true
Testing
NASA Dryden has a heritage of developmental and operational experience with unmanned aircraft systems. Work on Boeing's sub-scale X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft, X-48 Blended Wing Body and full-scale X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle technology demonstrators helped pave the way for current use of Global Hawk and
Lighter Than Air
Global Near Space Services (GNSS) of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Bye Aerospace of Denver, Colo., jointly announced continued progress in the development of a unique solar-electric-powered airship named StarLight. Engineers project this cost-effective, unmanned high altitude airship will remain on-station in the stratosphere for a minimum of four months at
Propulsion
Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University in Tainan successfully flew an unmanned aircraft powered by a turbojet engine last week. The aircraft, named Sky Fortress-III, was the first university project in the world to combine a turbojet engine with an unmanned aircraft, according to Lai Wei-hsiang, professor of the
Testing
This is a more recent picture of the X-56A - the latest ‘X’ plane unveiled by the United States Air Force and NASA. Developed with Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works, it is a modular aircraft designed to test an unusual method of alleviating flutter in lightweight aircraft. Rather than
Testing
Cassidian has confirmed plans to launch a new flight-test campaign with its Barracuda unmanned combat aircraft technology demonstrator later this year. To be staged at Goose Bay, Canada “this summer”, the flights will build on work performed at the same site in July 2010, when Cassidian’s lone Barracuda took
Testing
Swiss company RUAG has developed OPATS (Object Position and Tracking Sensor) - a laser-based automatic landing system for UAS that represents a cost-efficient alternative to radar-based landing systems. The landing procedure for UAS is still a very delicate operation and the most critical phase during the entire UAS flight. The
Testing
ITM Power has signed an Equipment Development and Lease Agreement with Boeing Research & Technology Europe S.L.U. for the development, assembly and field trials of a 1 Nm3/hour (2.1 kg/day) PEM electrolyser. The containerised electrolysis equipment will form part of Boeing’s current off-grid solar