Unmanned Vehicles

Letter of the Week:The Privatization Trap HR 4441 (ATC privatization) is a bear trap using austerity for bait. Don’t think for a moment that user fees will stay out of private aviation. Think revenue. Functional ADS-B infrastructure provides a precision billing platform to warm any number of Congressional hearts. With growing Part 23 and 25 […]

Better batteries for electric aircraft are in the works, but it may be five years before we see significant improvements in energy density, according to a leading battery researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Jeff Chamberlain, who heads the lab’s Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Research Science, told AVweb in an exclusive interview […]

Paul Bertorelli recently sat down with Jeff Chamberlain from the Argonne National Laboratory as part of his research for an in-depth comparison of battery technologies for our sister publicationAviation Consumer. Chamberlain had a lot to say about the future of battery technology and its impact on the push toward electric airplanes. Read more here. Duration: […]

Remember that IBM commercial back around 1998 that had two executives sitting in the corner office? One is reading The Wall Street Journal and says to the other, “It says here we have to be on the Web.” His companion asks why. “It doesn’t say,” says the WSJ reader. The spot perfectly captured the confusion […]

Lufthansa Aerial Services, part of the German conglomerate that owns Europe’s major airline, has stepped up its stake in the drone business. The company this week signed a deal with Chinese drone maker DJI to develop unmanned aircraft for a number of commercial purposes, such as inspecting railroads and airport runways. The agreement solidifies the […]

The Air Force has been plagued by high numbers of drone crashes in recent years amid fast-growing demand for the unmanned systems, mostly overseas. Twenty drones were damaged or destroyed last year, the highest number yet, according to a Washington Post report this week. The latest model – the $14 million, 2 1/2-ton Reaper made […]

Drones have popped up at the major shows such as Sun ‘n Fun and AirVenture and now they’ve become a feature of the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo at Sebring this week. For the first time, the show has a drone demonstration area in a large hangar. (It’s the one with the 727 poking out the […]

I’ve been reading a book called Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. Beyond its amusing title, it’s but an extended essay on the notion that the U.S. is the ideal place to breed and encourage cranks because the entire country was founded on imaginative ideas that challenged the […]

A signal-jamming system to deter unwanted drone flights was unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Developed by Airbus Defense and Space, the Smart Responsive Jamming Technology can disable signals between a drone and its operator or, in some cases, jam its navigation system. Since some drone flights in prohibited areas […]

The FAA released its smartphone app for drone flyers on Wednesday, reminding users that it’s a tool to help with legal compliance. The B4UFLY app is available for iOS devices. A beta version for Android devices also is available along with a link to provide feedback. B4UFLY uses map and airport data, along with real-time […]