Unmanned Vehicles

Flying cars are not even really a thing yet but the first race is already being organized. According to the website TransportUp two of its own vehicles developed with Airspeeder will race in South Australia before the end of the year. The Airspeeders are each capable of carrying a pilot but will be unmanned and […]

The ultimate dogfighting smackdown is scheduled for July 2021 when the Air Force pits one of its top fighter pilots against an autonomous fighter controlled by artificial intelligence. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Artificial Intelligence Center, told a virtual conference hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies the Air Force Research […]

There was likely a lively debrief after a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) AS350 B3 helicopter and an RCMP SkyRanger R60 surveillance drone collided while on a joint mission over a rural area of British Columbia in February. Although the incident happened in February, it didn’t make it to the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting […]

China-based urban air mobility company EHang has received commercial pilot operation approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). The approval, which covers air logistics operations, was granted based on the CAAC’s Pilot Operation Rules (Interim) for Specific Unmanned Aircraft. According to EHang, it is the […]

The fifth-annual FAA UAS Symposium, originally scheduled for the middle of June in Baltimore, will shift to a virtual format. The exact dates have not been set, but the symposium will be broken into two segments, according to the organizers. The dates have been set as July 8-9 for segment one and August 18-19 for […]

An Australia-based team led by Boeing presented its Loyal Wingman autonomous unmanned aircraft prototype to the Royal Australian Air Force on Tuesday. The aircraft, which is designed to “fly alongside existing platforms and use artificial intelligence to conduct teaming missions,” is the first of three prototypes headed for Australia’s Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program. Ground […]

UPS subsidiary UPS Flight Forward (UPSFF) has announced plans to begin using drones to deliver prescription medicines from a CVS pharmacy to a 135,000-resident retirement community in central Florida. According to UPS, the initial delivery flights will travel less than half a mile to a drop location near the community and be taken to residents […]

COVID-19 has prompted the FAA to loosen its notoriously tight restrictions on drones flying beyond visual line of site (BVLOS). DroneDJ is reporting that an oil and gas company has been granted a waiver to conduct remote inspection flights because of virus-related restrictions on staff activities. What’s more, the FAA approved the exemption within 24 […]

The FAA has selected two partners for the second phase of its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP). The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, located in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Rome, New York’s Griffiss International Airport (RME) will join the program as test site participants. The project’s first phase, which documented capabilities such […]

In collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA‑ASI) and the FAA, NASA successfully completed the first flight of its Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) demonstration activities last Friday. According to NASA, the SIO demonstrations are designed to “highlight commercial UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] missions that have the potential to provide economic and public benefit” […]