Drones

Six-year-old uAvionix, a pioneer in communications, navigation, and surveillance avionics for unmanned systems, on April 28 announced in a news release that it has been granted a new U.S. Patent 10,991,260—the company’s eighth—aimed at making US airspace safer by warning fixed and rotary wing aircraft of a nearby UAS. If a drone equipped with the […]

One sol equals one solar day on Mars—and that’s about 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds in Earth time. April 4 was officially “Sol 43” since NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the fourth planet from the sun—and on that day, the drone rotorcraft Ingenuity separated from its mother ship, making the small leap to […]

As part of the FAA’s Airport Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detection and Mitigation Research Program, the agency released the names of the five host airports that will become testing sites to evaluate technologies and systems that could detect and mitigate potential safety risks posed by remotely piloted aircraft. The FAA plans to test and evaluate at […]

On December 28, the FAA announced the release of final rules covering unpiloted aircraft or drones in the National Airspace System in the US. Not surprisingly, the new rules call for the remote identification of drones (known as Remote ID), allowing operators of small drones to fly over people and at night time under given conditions. At […]

A technical standard order (TSO) application was recently filed by uAvionix Corporation with the FAA aircraft certification office (ACO) for its flagship Mode S ADS-B Out transponder for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The model, known as the ping200X, includes an altitude encoder that will enable airspace access, regulatory, and Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) acceptance […]

Drone operators, including DJI, a world leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, have filed more than 51,000 comments to the FAA’s recent Remote ID rule, urging the FAA to reconsider requiring two means of compliance to the rule. DJI’s 89-page formal comment outlines a path where drone pilots could choose one of two […]

Unmanned aerial vehicles—drones, as we all like to call them—have dramatically affected the world over the last decade with their ability to handle tasks considered either too dangerous or too mundane for humans. Public safety drones, for instance, are capable of heading into the teeth of a brush fire to gather critical intelligence, a place […]

Cary, North Carolina, last week became ground zero for the first successful commercial test of a drone delivery service when an M2 drone operated by UPS and its partner drone systems developer Matternet delivered a prescription from a CVS pharmacy to a nearby residence and another later to a customer at a retirement community. The […]

An airborne human-factors experiment conducted by researchers from Oklahoma State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University concluded in a recent published study that certificated pilots failed to see a common type of quadcopter during approach to a runway, and in most cases, could never detect motionless drones. In the testing, skilled pilots usually could see small […]

The FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University has opened registration for the first-ever FirePoint C3 Challenge, inviting university students from around the U.S. to submit their best designs for the Army’s future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The C3 Challenge intends to “develop the STEM workforce of tomorrow by giving students hands-on, real-world experience and […]