Recent Updates

A Beechcraft MC-12 Liberty reconnaissance aircraft began flying missions earlier this week over northeastern Nigeria in the search for more than 250 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. It has been joined by unmanned surveillance aircraft, a Global Hawk, as well, reflecting a growing U.S. participation in the search efforts for the girls, though Pentagon officials […]

In Japan, remotely piloted helicopters made by Yamaha are a common sight and have been for more than 15 years. Now the company wants to move into the U.S. market with a new model called the FAZER. Yamaha’s Steve Markofski gave AVweb a briefing on this new UAV at the AUVSI show in Orlando this […]

Our weekly review of the news in aviation revealed that attitude information is now available for the Garmin aera 796/795, Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. has been created to produce a two-place electric airplane, Europe-American Aviation is upgrading its training capabilities in Naples, Fla., and General Atomics announced new technology to allow drones to sense and […]

ICON Aircraft announced that it has selected Vacaville, Calif., as its new home. It will be moving into a 140,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the airport in Vacaville later this year. Currently headquartered in Los Angeles, ICONs move to the new facility is intended to consolidate all company functions, including aircraft design, manufacturing, sales, training, service, […]

To answer todays burning question-and burning is probably an understatement-you need to watch this video. Its quite engaging. Click back when youre done; Ill wait. So the question is, does the FAA have a compelling responsibility to protect the public from potential harm that could accrue from such filming using small UAVs? Should the agency […]

At the AUVSI in Orlando on Monday, I ran into my old friend Jon Doolittle, long-time pilot and aviation insurance broker. I shouldnt have been surprised that hes branched out and started selling insurance for UAVs. Of course, the underwriters are baffled about what to charge for such coverage because theres no loss history worth […]

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International opened its annual conference and show this week in Orlando. AVweb was there and spoke to AVUSI president Michael Toscano about the state of the industry. view on YouTube

At the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International show in Orlando this week, dozens of UAV companies are displaying the latest in drone technology. In this exclusive AVweb video, Prioria’s Derek Lyons shows us a cool one – a carbon-fiber bird called the Maveric. view on YouTube

Defense contractors are investing heavily in politicians as a means of stemming looming cuts to the military. Bloomberg is reporting that political contributions by the top ten contractors went up by 29 percent in advance of the 2014 midterm congressional elections over the same period in 2012. The next crop of politicians will preside over […]

Just as a combination of radar, transponders and active traffic systems improved flight safety for manned aircraft, the UAS industry may benefit from different twists on the same technology. At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Orlando this week, General Atomics, the maker of the Predator UAS, explained its novel approach to […]