Weapons maker Northrop Grumman is working with NASA to develop the architecture to allow fleets of drone cargo jets to criss-cross America’s skies. It’s part of the Pathfinding for Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles project, which itself is part of NASA’s Air Traffic Management-eXploration, or ATM-X, effort. The goal is to model how an entire network of…
Epirus, a high-growth technology company, announced today a $66.1 million contract award from the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) in support of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High-Power Microwave Program. The prototyping contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) solidifies high-power microwave (HPM) as an effective short-range air defense solution against swarming unmanned…
XTEND, which develops the XOS human-guided autonomous operating system that aims to revolutionize human-to-machine interaction, announced it was awarded a $20 million contract by the Israel Ministry of Defense to develop and supply a multi-drone operating system. The new joint project with MAFAT and the Israeli Ministry of Directorate of Defense Research & Development will…
China’s XAG has announced that its agricultural drones – P40 and V40 – have been granted operational authorization by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the U.K. for agricultural spraying operations. Through the efforts of XAG’s partner, AutoSpray Systems, drone spraying and spreading on farms has become legal in the U.K., giving farms the ability to…
H3 Dynamics and Hylium Industries have joined forces to boost the performance of zero emission hydrogen-electric flight for a cross-Atlantic demonstration drone flight. Hylium and H3 Dynamics technologies are currently being integrated to attempt a 3,300km crossing of the South Atlantic, in a program led by ISAE SUPAERO Toulouse, one of the world’s leading aerospace engineering schools. The companies…
BAE Systems has received a $12 million Phase 2 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to further develop a low cost, all-weather, multi-mode (radar/infrared) open architecture seeker under the Maritime Weapon Innovation Program (MWIP) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (aka QUICKSINK). The QUICKSINK munitions concept provides air-delivered maritime surface vessel defeat capability for the…
LCI’s investment in Elroy Air’s system underpins the Company’s long-term commitment to sustainable growth and innovation. Under the terms of the deposit-backed agreement, LCI will initially acquire 20 aircraft with an option for a total of up to 40 units. The VTOL aircraft are currently under development at Elroy Air’s facility in South San Francisco, California….
Supernal announced a collaboration with Microsoft to advance autonomy, digital operations and cloud integration technologies for the aviation industry by running Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) on the Microsoft cloud platform. During the initial phase of the collaboration, Microsoft will provide Supernal early access to Project AirSim, an artificial intelligence (AI)-first simulation platform, to safely build, test, train…
Global aviation services provider ASL Aviation Holdings and Reliable Robotics, which develops autonomous aircraft systems, announced a collaboration to explore the use of automated aircraft. The companies said they will select a suitable aircraft for Reliable’s Remotely Operated Aircraft System with initial focus on large twin engine turboprop freighters. ASL and Reliable said they will jointly assess…
H3 Dynamics and Australian UAV producer Carbonix have announced development of the first Australian hydrogen-electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Carbonix is an Australian UAV manufacturer with expertise in advanced composite manufacturing, aerostructure design and VTOL control. H3 Dynamics has been developing hydrogen UAV technology for more than 15 years. Compared to batteries, hydrogen electric…
Canada’s FulcrumAir, which develops heavy-lift unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and aerial robotic devices, has announced it is offering slinging operations to assist in powerline construction and maintenance with its E7500 system. The company said work was recently done with K-Line Line Maintenance and Construction on a 138KV line being reconstructed for one of the leading…
Matternet, which develops drone delivery systems, has begun test operations on a five-kilometer BVLOS (beyond-visual-line-of-sight) route over the city of Zurich, Switzerland. The company said the route is the world’s longest drone delivery route over a major city and will be used to transport diagnostic samples between the Triemli and Waid Hospitals – both a…
Cleo Robotics, which develops the Dronut aerial vehicle platform, has announced a contract with the U.S. Army to deliver several prototype Tactical Dronut (TacDronut) systems to be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks. The $2.5 million contract was awarded by the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Crticial Technologies Office (RCCTO) following an Army…
H3 Dynamics has announced its aircraft with distributed hydrogen propulsion nacelles has taken flight for the very first time in France.
Amazon has provided a first look at its next-generation delivery drone for its Prime Air delivery service. The MK30 is lighter and smaller than the MK27-2, the drone that will be making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, later this year.
Sikorsky, a division of Lockheed Martin, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have successfully demonstrated to the U.S. Army how an unmanned Black Hawk helicopter flying autonomously can safely and reliably perform internal and external cargo resupply missions, as well as rescue operations.