Military
Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, California, is being awarded $7,280,560 for cost-plus-fixed-fee task order 1269 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026) in support of the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aircraft systems. This test support effort for the MQ-8C includes software verification; software regression; cybersecurity;
Military
The US Navy (USN) is nearly ready to commence deployment of a radar-equipped Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial system (UAS) aboard the Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) from June 2016. According to Captain Jeffrey Dodge, Multi-Mission Tactical UAS programme manager at NAVAIR,
Video
NASA has just released this 360 degree video of the battery powered, 10-propeller GL-10 Greased Lightning in flight. This is the same video that they show on virtual reality headsets at some conferences. It can be viewed in 360 on many devices. Developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Greased
Testing
Schiebel and the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), the Netherlands Coastguard and the Royal Netherlands Air Force conducted a series of at the airport of Den Helder in December 2015. The AIRICA (ATM Innovative RPAS Integration for Coastguard Applications) project marks a major step forward in the process of safe integration
Events
A Swiss aerial robotics startup is developing a half-plane half-helicopter vertical take-off drone to be available by this summer. Wingtra showed its prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a CeBit preview in Hannover, Germany. The fixed wing has propellers on its leading edge but it is a simpler design than
Military
On 30 December 2015, Urban Aeronautics’ AirMule completed its first autonomous, untethered flight at Megiddo airfield in northern Israel. Rafi Yoeli – chief executive of UrbanAero, the parent company of Tactical Robotics, which developed the vertical take-off and landing aircraft – says the test schedule in Megiddo includes plans to demonstrate the
Military
Small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates could greatly increase their effectiveness if they had their own unmanned air systems (UAS) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities at long range around the clock. Current state-of-the-art UASs, however, lack the ability to take off and land from
Business
Swedish defence company Saab and UMS Aero Group AG, a Swiss supplier of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are forming a joint venture under the name UMS Skeldar AG. Saab will transfer all assets relating to the Skeldar unmanned helicopter to UMS Skeldar.UMS Skeldar is a multi-skilled enterprise with
VTOL
Lockheed Martin demonstrated its ability to integrate unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations into the National Airspace System (NAS) using its prototype UAS Traffic Management (UTM) capabilities. During the demonstration on Nov. 18, the Stalker XE UAS provided data and a precise geolocation to the unmanned K-MAX cargo helicopter, which conducted
Military
The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) completed a successful land-based operational assessment (OA) with the unmanned, autonomous helicopter MQ-8C Fire Scout, at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, Nov. 20. The OA demonstrated the endurance and sensor integration capabilities on the new MQ-8C airframe. The Fire
VTOL
Aerolution, a Berlin-based company specialising in developing and marketing UAS for professional purposes, has recently launched the Songbird 1400. This UAS combines the pros of both the fixed wing and the chopper in one and the same aircraft. Basically the aircraft is a fixed wing but the four rotors are
Testing
“We panned the camera out over the Chesapeake, and there they were, four-and-a-half kilometers away” recalls Aerovel’s Tad McGeer. “It was our first day of demonstrating Flexrotor for the US Coast Guard.” Flexrotor, Aerovel’s exceptional unmanned aircraft, has caught the Coast Guard’s attention with its unique combination