Unmanned Vehicles

Honeywell Aerospace has announced that it will be partnering with Volocopter to jointly develop and test navigation and automatic landing systems for Volocopter’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. Honeywell says it will be bringing its autonomous sensing and flight technologies—including inertial measurement units and attitude heading reference solutions—to the table for the […]

Ehang flew its autonomous octocopter with two passengers for the first time in public in Austria on Saturday and the company said the aircraft is now ready for mass production. The Ehang 216 hovered briefly in a soccer stadium Apr. 4 in Vienna with a small contingent of press in attendance. “This is not a […]

One of Scaled Composites’ (formerly) most secretive projects was on full display at a Kentucky FBO over the weekend, on its way to NAS Paxutent River from Mojave. The stealthy model 401, one of two that are flying, stopped for fuel at Bowling Green in the middle of a clear day and the pilot wasn’t […]

A persistent dream of aviation buyers is for airplanes to be as innovative as modern cars, with quality to match. With electric airplanes on the horizon and eVTOL aircraft a thing, that’s exactly what’s happening, according to Aviation Week’s MRO network. Increasingly, aircraft companies are finding inspiration and product ideas in cutting-edge automotive technologies. Both […]

The future of package delivery has arrived in Reno, Nevada with the FAA’s approval of beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations by Flirtey. The company’s drones will first be able to deliver automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to medical emergencies. The drones will be operated by pilots using onboard cameras to maneuver the aircraft. The medical deliveries are a […]

The SpaceX Crew Dragon’s first test mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has come to a successful conclusion with a trouble-free, on-schedule splashdown at 8:45 a.m. EST on Friday. The mission netted the Crew Dragon several “firsts” for a commercially built and operated American crew spacecraft, including becoming the first to launch from American […]

Goodyear presented a concept for a tilt-rotor-type device that would work as a tire on the road and a propeller in the air at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland on Tuesday. The Goodyear AERO concept involves a non-pneumatic structure with the flexibility to dampen shocks when driving and the strength to rotate at high […]

This week, AVweb’s blog space will feature a two-part story from James Belton, a Gen X pilot who has done what the previous generation of pilots could not: Evolved from pistons, to jets, to drones. Here’s part one. When I was a young man, I desperately wanted to fly. I wanted to fly fighter jets […]

The FAA has partnered with drone operations software company Kittyhawk to redesign the agency’s B4UFLY mobile app for recreational unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drone) operators. According to the FAA, the new version, which is scheduled to launch in April 2019, will be aimed at improving user experience. Until the new app is released, the FAA says […]

Scaring birds away from airports is a huge challenge. A Canadian company is doing it with a robotic Peregrine Falcon called the Robird. They showed the drone at AUVSI Xponential in Dallas. AVweb shot this video on the new product. view on YouTube