Search Results for: drones

With the recent announcement that the FAA’s drone integration plans face more delays, Europe is way ahead of the U.S. There are several programs aimed at integrating pilotless drones into its airspace. For example, test flights are now underway in the UK using a Jetstream 31 twin-engine turboprop, controlled from the ground, but flying with […]

A Maryland company named R3 Engineering reported yesterday it has completed successful testing of an ADS-B-based fully autonomous collision avoidance sequence. The “sense and avoid” system installed in an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) received and processed ADS-B signals from another aircraft, and the UAS’s on board computer determined that their courses constituted a threat of […]

The FAA was scheduled to supply a list of possible locations for drone testing sites by Aug. 12, but has yet to deliver. This week, politicians and industry stakeholders are putting public pressure on the agency to make good on promises to move forward with what they expect to become a multibillion-dollar industry, and a […]

It’s been a rough few years for private aviation. The advent of GPS, moving map displays and so-called plastic airplanes in the 1990s brought with them renewed growth and interest. Much of that persisted, despite best efforts from national agencies concerned with security above all else, during the following decade. By 2007, signs of economic upheaval put a damper on flying activity. By the time 2008 and its sky-high aviation fuel prices rolled through, used personal aircraft were being sold at unheard-of low prices. Both trends flattened out in the years since, but fuel remains a significant operational expense and many used airframes aren’t worth what they were 15 years ago.

As the FAA prepares to fully integrate drones into American airspace over the next few years, a growing number of schools are also prepping for the change that influx will bring to the country’s pilot training landscape. Several universities have already staked their claim in the drone arena, with dozens approved as authorized UAV launch […]

Last month a team of University of Texas researchers spoofed an Adaptive Flight Hornet Mini drone, putting it on a crash course with the ground thanks to some advanced software that allowed the team to trick the craft’s GPS receiver. The spoof was part of a Department of Homeland Security test aimed at exposing the […]

Automation is a routine part of our lives now, dictated by sweeping new technologies and consumer preferences. Arguably, the trend toward automation began in aviation in the 1970s. It has been debated and resisted by many in the aviation community, but the game has recently changed for both the airlines and general aviation. Yet, our culture is still firmly grounded in the Lindbergh white scarf era, aided and abetted by a pilot training system with roots traceable to the period just after that epic flight.

Automation is a routine part of our lives now, dictated by sweeping new technologies and consumer preferences. Arguably, the trend toward automation began in aviation in the 1970s. It has been debated and resisted by many in the aviation community, but the game has recently changed for both the airlines and general aviation. Yet, our culture is still firmly grounded in the Lindbergh white scarf era, aided and abetted by a pilot training system with roots traceable to the period just after that epic flight.

Yesterday’s crash has thrust the high-flying Global Hawk into the spotlight.

The Navy lost one of its unmanned aerial systems (aka, “drones”) in a crash in Maryland on Monday. The craft crashed in a sparsely inhabited area across the Chesapeake Bay from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, where the drones are being used for training, according to the Navy. The RQ-4A BAMS-D drone is a […]