House Republicans have stepped up a campaign spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to ground the drones that Chinese manufacturer DJI has loaned or donated to local police departments to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boeing and the UK Civil Aviation Authority are to work together on developing requirements for beyond-visual-line-of-sight unmanned flight operations as a steppingstone toward a future mobility ecosystem.
Elbit Systems has introduced a long-range maritime rescue system for the Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft system ordered by an undisclosed customer in Southeast Asia, the company announced on May 7.
Startup Sabrewing Aircraft is to re-engine its Rhaegal-A turbo-electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned cargo aircraft with Safran Helicopter Engines’ Ardiden 3 turboshaft before the technology demonstrator’s first flight, planned later this year.
Drone operating system developer Auterion has released the reference design for a new family of unmanned aircraft systems avionics modules and announced GE Aviation as the launch manufacturer of its own high-reliability module for drone operations.
An early leader in the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing market, Joby Aviation has been secretive about its progress. But new details emerged during the virtual kickoff event of the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program on April 27-May 1.
The U.S. Air Force has expanded its interest in emerging electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft to encompass vehicles able to carry one-two people or more than 500 lb. of cargo.
Verizon portfolio company Skyward has added a “Live Flights” feature to its aviation management platform that enables users to monitor drone flights in near real time from their offices or wherever they have internet connectivity.
France has begun the first phase of developing an unmanned aircraft systems traffic management architecture called “Hubspace” that it plans to deploy by 2023 to manage drone traffic nationwide.
North American companies involved in building and operating small drones are proposing systems that could potentially be used in battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zipline drones are delivering COVID-19 test samples collected from rural clinics in Ghana to laboratories in the capital Accra and Kumasi, the country’s second-largest city.
