Unmanned Vehicles

A regional airliner on approach to Tallahassee, Fla., in March nearly collided with a drone, an FAA official said on Thursday. Speaking before a drone conference in San Francisco,Jim Williams, head of the FAA’s UAV office, said the near-collision occurred at about 2300 feet nearTallahassee Regional Airport in Florida. The flight was operated by USAirways, […]

Letter of the Week:The Real Costs of the Super Bowl? Regarding the story about the NFL not being charged for air traffic services for the Super Bowl: There is a lack of understanding of the difference in cost of supporting AirVenture and the Super Bowl. I am a retired controller who worked EAA three times […]

Sometimes, you just have to pause, stand back and admire a perfect marketing plan. And thats exactly what Lakemaid Brewery pulled off the week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, but Im not sure how many people got the joke. By now, you will have read that Lakemaid, a craft brewer in Wisconsin, followed Amazons […]

The military is already flying autonomous aircraft, and the private sector is eager to exploit this new technology. Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, explains to AVweb’s Mary Grady why he thinks the FAA should reassess the risks and stop slowing down progress. Duration: File Size: download here

Just 18 days after being designated by the FAA as one of six federally approved test sites for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will conduct several test flightsover South Texas ranchland to continue research and training on the RS-16 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The RS-16 has a wingspan of 12 feet 11 inches, […]

The Navy said Thursday that it successfully launched the XFC folding-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS, or drone) from a torpedo tube on the USS Providence, while the submarine was submerged. The all-electric, fuel-cell-powered aircraft has an X-wing configuration in flight that folds for storage and launch. The UAS was delivered from the submarine to the […]

A Reaper attack and surveillance drone has gone down in Lake Ontario during a training mission about 1 p.m. local time. The Reaper belonged to the Syracuse, New York-based 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard, which trains Air Force pilots to fly them all over the world. The flight originated at Fort Drum […]

The FAA Thursday released its UAS Roadmap and Comprehensive Plan to integrate unmanned aerial systems, or UAS (also known as UAVs or drones) in the national airspace. The release addresses current and future policies, regulations, technologies and procedures that will allow operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in the nations airspace with emphasis on extensive integration. […]

A study by St. Louis University senior researcher Matt Vance seeks to discover key factors that would encourage or discourage travel on unmanned autonomous airliners and, while the results aren’t yet complete, Vance told AVweb Thursday that he expects at least one pattern to emerge. Vance performed a pilot study in March that included 44 […]

Founded in 2012, Titan Aerospace of New Mexico aims to create solar-powered unmanned aircraft to act as satellites with years-long flight durations. The company has two models in the works: the Solara 50 and the Solara 60, with the numbers referring to each vehicle’s wingspan in meters. Both are being designed to fly autonomously at […]