Unmanned Vehicles

On Thursday, Archer Aviation announced it has joined forces with defense tech company, Anduril Industries, to develop a hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft for defense applications. In a joint press release, the two companies detailed plans to develop the next-gen aircraft by leveraging Archer’s advanced VTOL design process with Anduril’s expertise in artificial […]

A group of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) students won first place in a national competition with research demonstrating how drones can help reduce wildlife strikes at airports. Anna Golendukhina, an aviation master’s student and one of the authors of the research, explained how drones improve wildlife monitoring. “Drones not only make the process more cost-effective […]

Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Interim NYC Police Commissioner Tom Donlon announced the city’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. The initiative is now active in five commands (two drones each) within three of the city’s five boroughs. Missions include missing persons searches, alerts from the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, robberies/grand […]

A fully autonomous Cessna Caravan shuttled components to support a major military exercise between nine different airports across two states earlier this month. The Caravan, operated by Xwing, which was acquired by Joby earlier this year, covered 3,900 miles and the human monitor pilot onboard never touched the controls. Exercise Agile Flag 24-3 is one […]

Ukraine’s latest potent weapon is a homegrown drone that, when it’s not carrying hundreds of pounds of high explosive, has room for two adults and their baggage. The “mass drone attack” conducted against three air bases hundreds of miles inside Russia was reportedly carried out, at least in part, by Aeroprakt A-22 light sport aircraft […]

California-based Reliable Robotics announced today (Dec. 6) it has completed an FAA-sanctioned uncrewed flight of a Cessna 208B Caravan at Hollister Airport (KCVH) just south of San Jose, with a remote pilot in control from the company headquarters in Mountain View, California, 50 miles away. The Caravan took off from Runway 31 and entered a […]

The FAA has authorized drone delivery and logistics company Zipline to make commercial deliveries using drones flying beyond the operator’s line of sight. According to the agency, Zipline will use its Sparrow drone, which releases payloads via parachute and is capable of traveling up to 120 miles, for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. […]

Korean researchers are developing a humanoid “pibot” that looks like a character from a 1960s science fiction sitcom but unlike most autonomous flight systems, this one can literally fill in for pilots in any aircraft. The team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) say their creation can fly a plane without […]

The FAA has approved commercial use of the biggest electric drone it’s ever certified and it may be coming to a farm near you. The Pelican Spray, developed by Oakland-based startup Pyka, is a Cub-sized cropdusting drone that’s already in operation in Costa Rica, Honduras and Brazil to spray bananas, cotton, soy and corn. The […]

The FAA has approved Reliable Robotics process to certify a system designed to turn a variety of aircraft into remotely piloted vehicles. Rather than concentrate on the airframe, the company is instead working on the technology to apply remotely operated flight systems to existing aircraft. Its initial testbed has been a Cessna Caravan but the […]