Search Results for: drones

Most of my articles for this journal focus on managing the risk of flying piston-powered general aviation aircraft, with examples of good and poor risk management. But risk management is at least equally critical in the world of operating airliners and turbine-powered transport category aircraft. Recent air carrier accidents provide illustration and lessons relevant to operating small general aviation aircraft, especially when designing and certifying them. In fact, and just as during flight operations, the job of managing risk in the design and certification is to identify, assess and mitigate that risk. These procedures apply even more objectively when using rigid design criteria, especially when they involve transport category aircraft.

No matter your perspective about the integration of drones into the national airspace system (NAS), Skyfront’s recent flight of its Perimeter 4 hybrid gas-electric drone beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) of the operator looks like nothing other than a complete success. Conducted over a rugged, four-mile stretch of mountainous terrain along the Trans-Alaska pipeline, the unmanned aerial vehicle […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association celebrates 50 consecutive years of its famous convention this summer—now known as EAA AirVenture, but referred to by most as “Oshkosh”. We’ve scoured the significant conference schedule, and picked out these highlights for you to consider as you plan your week at the show this year—which runs from Monday, July 22, […]

Hobbyist drone pilots in the United States face new restrictions after the FAA adopted stricter rules and regulations aimed at keeping the national airspace system safe and available for both manned and unmanned aircraft. Under the new rules, which took effect this month, hobbyist drone pilots are no longer exempt under Section 336, which has […]

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Bay area startup Cuberg has shown promise for the development of better battery technology to help electrically powered transportation devices fly or drive longer. […]

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced that the FAA has provided certification for commercial drone service operations to Wing Aviation, a Gooogle X project. The certification allows the service to start delivering packages via UAS in Blacksburg, Virginia. Wing Aviation’s success has come through a collaboration with Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic […]

The threat from Axis submarines prowling the East Coast of the United States was scary and very real. Onshore shelling terrorized civilians, but the real low-hanging fruit for the submarines was on the seas. By as early as August 1942, Axis subs had caused the loss of thousands of lives, mainly merchant mariners, and sunk […]

Chinese EHang Air Mobility Group has taken major steps toward making autonomous transportation a reality. The company recently conducted a public flight of its EHang 216 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) at the Generali Arena in Vienna as part of the 4GAMECHANGERS Festival, which took place April 9 through 11. While the electric VTOL is not […]

Boeing took the first steps to get its 737 MAX aircraft back in the air in March with a software update to reduce the influence of an automated pitch control system and reduce the chances that it will trigger spuriously. The focus of the update is the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which was chiefly designed to counter the MAXs tendency to pitch up at high angles of attack while being hand flown and push the nose over in the case of an impending stall. In the original design, MCAS used data from one of two angle of attack indicators to determine the deflection angle of the horizontal stabilizer. Its believed faulty data from an AOA played a role in the fatal crashes of a Lion Air MAX 8 last October and an Ethiopian Airlines MAX 8 in March. The new software is reported to draw data from both AOAs and limit the MCAS to moving the tail feathers only once, instead of repeatedly countering pilot inputs. Implementation of the software was expected in April after FAA review.

The FAA says it is establishing temporary flight restrictions (TFR) for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) over dozens of federal facilities, mostly prisons and hospitals, at the request of the Defense and Justice Departments. The notam detailing the drone TFRs (FAA NOTAM FDC [9/2586]) is pending until it goes into effect on February 26. The FAA […]