Applications & Testing & Experience
The second X-47B completed a successful first flight on November 22. Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) took off under hazy skies from Edwards Air Force Base at 12:43 p.m. PST, climbed rapidly to an altitude of 5,000 feet, flew several racetrack patterns over Rogers Dry Lake, then landed
Applications & Testing & Experience
An ANKA unmanned aircraft developed by TAI was flown for six hours for tests last Thursday, reaching a maximum height of 6,000 meters. According to officials, the unmanned aircraft passed all 240 tests undertaken during the flight and take-off and landing was done on autopilot. TAI will start delivering
Applications & Testing & Experience
Direct laser sintering (DLS) is seeing rapid uptake in the construction of unmanned aircraft. DLS is an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that can produce some of the most durable high-quality products around. Aerospace manufacturers -- along with numerous users in the medical sector -- are taking advantage of AM to
Applications & Testing & Experience
Sinclair UAS Training and Certification Center just posted this video of a recent UAS testing session at Indiana's Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center. A ten-member team of professionals and trainees assembled on site to test Sinclair's UAS, beginning with a systems operation overview and through
Applications & Testing & Experience
A recently launched research project involving researchers at Bristol University and UK aerospace company Cobham is attempting to solve the problem of entirely autonomous aerial refuelling. The project is actually one facet of the wider ASTRAEA (Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment) programme, which aims to open up
Aircraft Propulsion & Energy
Moller International, Inc. has awarded Space Science Corporation (SSC) a distributorship with exclusive rights in New Mexico following the completion of a market survey at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS). "Space Sciences Corporation is a young aggressive firm and their approach to business holds many
Applications & Testing & Experience
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Multi Sensor Detect Sense and Avoid (MSDSA) programme successfully completed its first airborne demonstration using a prototype, x-band radar sensor. This new Sense And Avoid (SAA) sensor repeatedly detected and tracked airborne intruders resulting in over 60 seconds of avoidance time. “The MSDSA sensor incorporates our
Applications & Testing & Experience
World Surveillance Group Inc. has announced that that free flight testing and customer demonstrations of the Argus One will take place at the US Department of Energy Nevada Test Site ("N2S2") in early December 2011. These flight tests and demonstrations at N2S2 are being sponsored by the US
Applications & Testing & Experience
A team of seven students from the Terrassa School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering (ETSEIAT) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC) have developed the technology for flying the Solar Endeavour UPC, Spain's first photovoltaic-powered plane built by students. The project's main goal was to
Applications & Testing & Experience
NASA's Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment, or ATTREX, will conduct this research over the Pacific Ocean from three locations in 2013 and 2014. A consortium of scientists are in the early stages of preparation for a multi-year airborne science campaign to study the humidity and chemical composition of air
Applications & Testing & Experience
The US Navy has announced that it will add an aerial refuelling capability to at least one of the two X-47 prototypes sometime in 2014. The decision to add refueling software and equipment was published on the federal government’s business opportunity website Limited by a human being’s endurance,
Applications & Testing & Experience
Northrop Grumman posted this video of the first "cruise" flight of the US Navy's X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstration aircraft. During this flight, conducted Sept. 30, 2011 flight, the aircraft's landing gear was raised and lowered for the first time, a key milestone