Unmanned Vehicles

A first at Sun ‘n Fun, the Chinese aviation company Yuneec was demonstrating quadcopter drones in a net cage near the center of the vendor area. AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli interviewed Craig Clover about what the company is offering. view on YouTube

Amazon received an updated letter of approval from the FAA this week to test its package delivery drones after the company said its initial waiver came so late it was “obsolete.” Meanwhile, the FAA stated on its website it’s expediting these types of updated approvals and will also allow sport pilots with driver’s licenses to […]

With new ADS-B products emerging about every other month, a surprise entrant into the dependent surveillance market may be search giant Google. According to a report in FlightGlobal, at an ICAO meeting last month, Google exec Dave Vos, who heads the company’s Project Wing internet effort, said the company is considering flooding the market with […]

A few companies this month confirmed their plans to develop cargo spacecraft for this year’s round of bids for NASA contracts to service the International Space Station, according to a Washington Post report.On Tuesday, Sierra Nevada Corp. announced a version of its manned reusable vehicle, modified for cargo missions. The Dream Chaser Cargo System will […]

Amazon, which is developing drones to make package deliveries, received its long-awaited experimental airworthiness certificatefrom the FAAon Thursday. The approval allows Amazon to test its unmanned aerial systems in the U.S. while proposed commercial drone regulations await the rulemaking process. The certificate, requested by Amazon in July, allows the company to make flights no higher […]

The federal employee whose drone crashed on the White House lawn in January won’t be charged by prosecutors, but the FAA will continue to investigate the incident, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Shawn Usman, an employee of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was flying a borrowed DJI quadcopter in the early hours of Jan. 26 when […]

The FAA has attempted to shut down a drone operator’s website advertising photo and video services. But so far, Steve Girard of Gorham, Maine, continues to promote his side business, Xtreme Aerial View. On the site, he offers “aerial pictures and videos, perfect for real estate listings but also great for weddings, family parties or […]

Whether we accept it or not, it’s true that humans tend to worry, sometimes obsessively and irrationally, about things that might harm them. That’s how terrorism works. Unless you’re in, say, Aleppo or Mosul, the likelihood of being killed in a terrorist attack is close to zero. Yet we duly have our shoes X-rayed and […]

The Secret Service announced it will conduct “exercises” using unmanned aerial vehicles around Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks. While the agency didn’t disclose further details, including what kinds of drones are involved or the nature of the activities, it’s fair to surmise they will include some kind of security-related testing. A Washington Post blog […]

Letter of the Week:Drones No Danger I’m a commercial pilot and small drone operator and want to thank you for not joining the unfounded media hysteria over small UAV operation in the U.S. Regarding the “numerous” drone sightings reported by pilots as tabulated by the FAA, I’ve examined them, and the most frequently used words […]