Unmanned Vehicles

An unmanned aerial system that can take off and land on destroyers and other small military ships is nearing reality. After completing initial design phases, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this month awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a full-scale demonstration model of the yet-to-be-named UAS.DARPA’s goal is to build a […]

The Army’s longest-serving unmanned aerial system retired this month after a final flight at Fort Hood in Texas. Operators of the Hunter, a fixed-wing unit similar in size to a two-seat piston airplane, enjoyed a last demonstration flight during a ceremony Dec. 16 at Robert Gray Army Airfield. The UAS is among the early generations […]

It’s always amusing when the hardworking daily press gets wind of an aviation-related story that’s trending out there where the busses don’t run. Such was the case Thursday when several outlets picked up the announcement from Terrafugia that its flying car had been approved for test flights in the U.S. “The FAA Just Approved Test […]

Like spilled red wine soaking into a white tablecloth, the meme that we live in an age of fear seems to be an indelible idea. I would like to state two things for the record, however. One, I think that whatever fear exists is mostly a product of hysterical cable news coverage. And second, speaking […]

An aerospace company’s new study on the hazards of toy drones mixing with manned aircraft concludes that the safety risks are greater that those of bird strikes. The study (PDF) from Aero Kinetics, “The Real Consequences of Flying Toy Drones in the National Airspace System,” concludes that rotorcraft pilots are at the highest risk of […]

Even as the FAA struggles to formulate drone regulations, Internet giant Google says it will begin delivering packages by drone sometime in 2017. David Vos, who leads Project Wing for Google’s parent, Alphabet, said the company is in discussions with the FAA to set up an air traffic control system for drones that would use […]

SkyPan International, the drone operator that was fined $1.9 million this month by the FAA for aerial photography flights, maintains it has always operated legally and safely. In a response to the FAA’s charges that it conducted unauthorized flights in New York and Chicago between March 2012 and December 2014, SkyPan says it “operates only […]

When it comes to drones—talking about them, writing about them, filming them or considering them in almost any context—I think hysteria is still the standard condition. Even we reported last month that a million of the damn things could be given as Christmas gifts. The source of this was Rich Swayze, who told an Airlines […]

Conflicts involving amateur-operated drones made the news again this week, one involving an irritated neighbor who disabled one with a gun. In Louisiana, Aaron Hernandez lost his $1,200 quadcopter Monday night while flying it around his father’s house outside Baton Rouge. Hernandez told WBRZ 2 the neighbors had expressed objections to his drone flying before, […]

The FAA, behind schedule in finalizing regulations for commercial use of unmanned aerial systems, will be ready by June 17, 2016, according to congressional testimony Wednesday by the agency’s deputy administrator. Michael Whitaker told a House aviation subcommittee, when pressed for specifics, that June of next year would be a realistic time frame for the […]