UAS

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 […]

Perhaps the term’s now familiar to you: urban air mobility or UAM. But to give it a pilot-centric definition, it’s the three-dimensional air transportation network designed to serve communities, sharing airspace with UAS and drones, but also passenger-carrying aircraft. Though autonomous vehicles are a component (and draw the most attention), they won’t necessarily factor in […]

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 […]