Unmanned Vehicles

Bell says it is ready to “transform” on-demand delivery service and has teamed up with Yamato, a Japanese shipping and logistics company, to develop electric-powered cargo drones by the mid-2020s. “Through this joint effort, we are eager to set a new precedent for on-demand delivery and future large-scale logistics,” said Scott Drennan, Bell’s vice president […]

Toyota has filed for patent protection of an unusual flying car design that uses the same drive mechanism for road and the air. According to TransportUp, the “Dual Mode Vehicle With Wheel Rotors” uses the rotor hubs as wheels when the device is on the ground. The rotors fold into the wheel allowing the vehicle […]

Bell Helicopter demonstrated its unmanned Hybrid Drive Train Research Aircraft (HYDRA) at the first Tech Demo edition of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Center of Excellence in Alma, Quebec, this week. According to the company, HYDRA uses distributed propulsion technology and a circular wing to “sustain wing-borne flight at reduced power consumption, while increasing its […]

Yet another eVTOL company has announced it is in flight trials with the intention of upending the urban transportation market and Astro Aerospace, of Dallas, isn’t shy about the Jetson analogies. Not only is the company named after the 1960s cartoon family of the future’s dog, its prototype autonomous passenger carrying drone is called Elroy […]

The last piece of the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system, which allows “near real-time processing of airspace authorizations” for drone operators, went live last week, according to a statement made by FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell. LAANC was rolled out incrementally by region, beginning with the south central U.S. at the […]

Braille Battery announced the successful completion of a series of test trials on the company’s new customized lithium batteries for commercial drones (UAVs) last week. Braille says the trials demonstrated that its batteries provided “longer discharge cycles—with significantly less weight—than the incumbent battery,” although estimates of how much longer and lighter have not yet been […]

With Hurricane Florence heading for the Carolina coast, the FAA is warning unauthorized drone operators to stay out of the skies around areas impacted by the storm even if no Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is in place. The agency emphasized that unauthorized flights during and after the storm could disrupt emergency response flights, which often […]

The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says drone encounters accounted for almost the entire 58 percent increase in air proximity reports (airproxes) in the past five years. The BBC analyzed data from the CAA that says the airprox total jumped from 172 in 2013, when there were no drone complaints, to 272 in 2017, including […]

Altiscope, the Unmanned Traffic Management group from A3 by Airbus, released a document that it is calling a “roadmap for the safe integration of autonomous aircraft” on Wednesday. Airbus says its Blueprint for the Sky is designed to open conversation on industry evolution and the policies and rule-making that can regulate autonomous operations. “The shift […]

Boeing has announced the successful completion of its first series of synchronized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight tests. The tests were completed using new onboard autonomous command and control technology that the company says is designed to automatically perceive, processes and react in coordination with other UAVs. The new system was developed and tested in […]