Recent Updates

Canada conducted its first commercial trial of a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operation earlier this month by dropping off some prescriptions to a patient on an island off the coast of British Columbia. Indro Robotics partnered with Canada Post to deliver an EpiPen and naloxone from a drugstore to a resident on […]

The Clermont Group announced that it completed its acquisition of Israel-based electric aircraft company Eviation Aircraft, developer of the all-electric, nine-passenger Alice commuter aircraft, on Thursday. As previously reported by AVweb, Eviation displayed the first “fully operational” Alice at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, France, last June, where company also announced U.S. airline […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) reiterated the need for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones) to be safely and carefully integrated into the national airspace system (NAS) in comments filed on an Amazon Prime Air petition on Wednesday. The petition, which was filed in early August, asks for exemptions that would allow the company to conduct commercial […]

SpaceX’s Starhopper launch vehicle prototype completed what is likely to be its last test flight on Tuesday evening. The hover test lasted about a minute and the vehicle reached an altitude of approximately 150 meters (about 500 feet) before touching down on its landing pad. The test, which took place at SpaceX’s facility in Boca […]

NASA has announced the successful completion of in-flight testing on the eXternal Visibility System (XVS) for its X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft. According to NASA, the XVS “virtual window” forward-facing camera and display system creates “an augmented reality view of the X-59 pilot’s forward line-of-sight along with graphical flight data overlays.” The supersonic X-59 […]

Expanding its product line, Bearhawk Aircraft will start delivering Companion kits in October. The Companion fits in between the tandem-seat, two-place Patrol and the four-place Bearhawk. Powered by four-cylinder Lycoming engines from the 150-HP O-320 to the 210-HP IO-390, the Companion will keep its utility roots while being “sportier than the SUV/pickup four-place Bearhawk,” according […]

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded contracts for the purchase of two new aircraft on Monday. One will be a modified Gulfstream G550, which NOAA says will be used for missions including hurricane and tropical storm forecasts and atmospheric research. The second addition will be a Beechcraft King Air 350 CER turboprop. […]

Bell’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 unmanned aircraft system (UAS/drone) successfully completed its first autonomous flight on Monday at the company’s testing site near Fort Worth, Texas. Bell says it intends to continue testing the APT 70 under an experimental type certificate for the rest of 2019 with the goal of holding a simulated commercial […]

Sierra Nevada Corporation subsidiary 328 Support Services GmbH (328SSG) announced on Wednesday that it has formed new aircraft original equipment manufacturer (OEM) DRA GmbH to build an upgraded version of the Dornier 328 twin-engine turboprop, called the D328NEU. To that end, 328SSG and U.S.-based Sierra Nevada Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with German federal […]

Airbus Aerial has received a waiver from the FAA to conduct urban unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drone) flight operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and without requiring a visual observer in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The flights will be conducted under the North Dakota Department of Transportation’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP), an FAA-sponsored public-private […]