Unmanned Vehicles

Israel hopes to add its name to the growing list of spacefaring countries that have landed spacecraft on the moon. Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries shipped the 1300-pound lunar lander, named Beresheet, to Orlando last week and it will be trucked to Cape Canaveral. There, it will hitchhike on a SpaceX Falcon 9 […]

The FAA is proposing relaxing rules for flying drones over people and at night. The FAA released a draft of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Monday. The NPRM will be published in the Federal Register “at a later date.” A draft Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was also released laying the groundwork for public input […]

For the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 last month, the PBS NOVA series did a nice documentary on the flight that’s worth finding and watching. Among many, the producers interviewed one of the most cerebral of the astronauts, Michael Collins. He was the command module pilot on Apollo 11 and also a Capcom on Apollo […]

A Chinese probe has become the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). CNSA says the probe, named Chang’e-4, touched down at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday. Chang’e-4 is an un-crewed vehicle that includes a lander and a rover. “The Chang’e-4 probe, […]

Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is offering $500 scholarships to first responders who want to attend its small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) commercial remote pilot training course in 2019. The three-day course covers topics including airspace, meteorology, weather, UAS performance, loading and center of gravity, and Part 107 operations. The scholarship, which is available to […]

U.K. police have cleared a married couple of any involvement in the Gatwick Airport drone incursions after they spent most of the weekend in jail. Paul Gait, 47, and wife Elaine Kirk, 54, were arrested at their home in Crawley, near the airport, late Friday. They were arrested “on suspicion of disrupting services of civil […]

Mexican authorities are trying to determine if a drone collision smashed the radome and damaged some aluminum on the nose of an Aeromexico Boeing 737-800 landing at Tijuana Dec. 12. Whatever the airliner, which was on its way from Guadalajara, hit, it crumpled the fiberglass and left scratches farther back on the nose and didn’t […]

Fuel Strainer Lottery A significant omission from Jeff Parnau’s very interesting article is the Decathlon’s fourth fuel drain point under the rear fuselage aft of the rear seat that is easily overlooked. It is there because the gascolator is not the lowest point in the fuel system when the aircraft is parked. The plumbing to […]

Children haven’t traditionally been the target of FAA compliance efforts but Buzzy the Drone will lead the agency into the holiday drone-giving season to keep kids from flying their new treasures where they shouldn’t be. The agency rolled out a YouTube video earlier this week featuring the cheerful cartoon creation with the somewhat daunting task […]

Russia has announced it’s in the race to develop an electric airliner and it’s claiming it’s ahead of other countries in the pursuit. Andrei Dutov, head of the Zhukovsky Institute National Research Center, told Russian state media that his institution is making great strides toward pure electric flight. “A 500 kW electrical engine has been […]