Unmanned Vehicles

Much like the FAA’s Christmas-week safety campaign for those who received unmanned aerial vehicles as gifts, The UK’s aviation regulators sent the message (PDF) to consumers that disruptive or unsafe use of drones could result in hefty fines. The Daily Mail of London reported on Christmas Day that the Civil Aviation Authority said drone users […]

Monday must have been one of those schizophrenic days that only a federal agency could suffer. Just as The Washington Post broke a story that the FAA had hired its own lobbyist to suggest ways of speeding up the drone flight approval process against warnings by its own safety inspectors, it was participating in the […]

NASA and contractor SpaceX announced Thursday this week’s launch of an unmanned supply capsule to the International Space Station will be postponed until January to conduct further testing. NASA said issues during a test of the Falcon rocket engines at Cape Canaveral this week will require investigation. A possible launch date on the morning of […]

The FAA on Wednesday granted four companies exemptions for operating unmanned aerial systems in various functions including aerial surveys, construction site monitoring and oil rig flare inspections. The companies are Trimble Navigation Limited, VDOS Global LLC, Clayco Inc. and Woolpert Inc., which received two exemptions.The FAA is expected to propose rules governing drones by the […]

Letter of the Week:Third Class Medical Issues Regarding Woody Beck’s article on the decline of GA: He states the following,“Over the longer term, changes in the third class medical will have no significant impact because its cost is negligible, roughly the cost of 15 gallons of av fuel every two years for us older pilots.” […]

NASA’s Orion unmanned spacecraft successfully launched, orbited the Earth and splashed downFriday morning on its first test flight, one day after the liftoff was scrubbed due to weather and mechanical problems.Orion, a prototype capsule for future manned space missions, made two laps around the Earth, rode its Delta IV rocket up to 3,600 miles, then […]

After dealing with a variety of delays including mechanical issues, NASAscrubbed the launch of the Orion capsule Thursday morning and scheduled another attempt in less than 24 hours.The original 7:05 a.m. launch was delayed when a stray boat was spotted in the launch zone, according to Florida Today. Strong winds then delayed new launch times […]

Video camera maker GoPro Inc. will enter the burgeoning drone market with its own camera-equipped unmanned aerial systems in late 2015, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.GoPro, which sells small high-definition cameras in the $200 to $500 range, is developing multi-rotor helicopters to sell between $500 and $1,000, according to the report. […]

Transport Canada just released some proposed guidance on the commercial operation of light unmanned aerial systems. Drones. If you haven’t had a chance to look it over, here’s the link (PDF). I suggest at least skimming it. (I’ll wait while you do that.) Clearly, our friends north of the border have come adrift from reality […]

Giant e-tailer Amazon seems to be getting more serious about delivering packages with unmanned aerial systems. This week, the company posted a detailed help-wanted notice seeking an engineer and/or pilot with experience in UAS development and a background in FAA certification projects. Recall that late last year, Amazon unveiled a test project in which small […]