Recent Updates

An Israeli company says its new Bonanza-sized drone can mix it up safely with regular civilian air traffic thanks to a triple redundant detect-and-avoid system to keep out of the way. The StarLiner from Elbit Systems is compliant with NATO’s Standardization Agreement known as STANAG 4671, meaning it is approved for missions where airliners and […]

Like many RV builders of the early 2000s, I was a Yankee refugee. I had been an active member of the American Yankee Association—the type club for those who owned American (and Grumman American) Yankees, Cheetahs and Tigers, the descendants of Jim Bede’s BD-1—for over 20 years, but we all saw the writing on the […]

Transport Canada is proposing to allow drones weighing as much as a Cessna 152 to be operated beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in what it classifies as “isolated areas” and to liberalize drone operations across the board. The proposals are being opposed by major aviation groups in Canada as a threat to manned aircraft […]

Honeywell Aerospace has announced that flight testing is underway for sensors designed to help urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles land autonomously. According to the company, test aircraft are outfitted with the sensors and equipped with cameras that “analyze visual markings resembling QR codes” as a means of guiding the vehicle to the landing site. Testing […]

Flying cars are not even really a thing yet but the first race is already being organized. According to the website TransportUp two of its own vehicles developed with Airspeeder will race in South Australia before the end of the year. The Airspeeders are each capable of carrying a pilot but will be unmanned and […]

NASA has announced the selection of Kathy Lueders as the agency’s next associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. Lueders replaces Doug Loverro, who resigned from the position on May 18, less than two weeks before the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Although the exact circumstances that led to […]

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) startup Airflow introduced its new electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) cargo vehicle concept on Wednesday. According to the company, the unnamed fixed-wing aircraft will require less than 150 feet to take off and land and will be capable of carrying up to 500 pounds of cargo. The single-pilot eSTOL is […]

Bearhawk Aircraft, best known for its two- and four-place utility homebuilts, will offer a new, larger model called the Bearhawk 5. According to the company, the 5, penned by noted designer and engineer Bob Barrows, “made its first flight on May 3rd. The prototype has flown more than 5 hours in testing and is exhibiting […]

The ultimate dogfighting smackdown is scheduled for July 2021 when the Air Force pits one of its top fighter pilots against an autonomous fighter controlled by artificial intelligence. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Artificial Intelligence Center, told a virtual conference hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies the Air Force Research […]

There was likely a lively debrief after a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) AS350 B3 helicopter and an RCMP SkyRanger R60 surveillance drone collided while on a joint mission over a rural area of British Columbia in February. Although the incident happened in February, it didn’t make it to the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting […]