Testing
Jarno Smeets, a 32 year-old Dutchman and creator of the Human Birdwings Project, made history on Sunday with a record-breaking flight of over 100 meters in his local park achieved purely by flapping his wings. After 8 months of hard work, research and testing his hard work had
Testing
Mike Humphreys, Military Account Manager for the UK company Blue Bear, said at a DSTL technology day in London, UK, that although the product was launched during DSEi in September, the system is still being developed and will be ready for purchase when the company is confident in its maturity.
Testing
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center flew its Ikhana MQ-9 unmanned aircraft with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, device, for the first time on March 15. It was the first time an unmanned aircraft as large as Ikhana – with a 66-foot wingspan, a takeoff
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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