Tag Archives: Airbus Helicopter

339 Planning for Drones at Airports

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Airfield design guidelines for large UAS, a guidebook for UAS threats at airports, first free flight of Airbus naval UAS, studying sea turtles and saving baby deer, fully charging drone batteries in 5 minutes, and drones fly over a nuclear power plant.

UAV News

Woolpert hired to research and develop airfield design guidelines for large UAS

The guidelines are primarily intended for airport managers, planners, engineers, UAS operators, and other stakeholders. If manned and unmanned aircraft are going to operate in the same airspace, airports will want to know the impacts. That includes the facility needs of large UAS and if they would use the same infrastructure. The contract with Woolpert is under the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), which is managed by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and sponsored by the FAA.

Woolpert Selected by National Safe Skies Alliance to Develop UAS Response Guidebook for Airports

The guidebook is intended to help airports plan for and respond to UAS threats. The National Safe Skies Alliance is a non-profit organization funded by the FAA. It works with airports, government, and industry to maintain a safe and effective aviation security system. Woolpert will develop strategies and consider detection systems. Guidebook production is already underway with completion planned for 2021.

Airbus UAV Helo Completes First Free Flight

The relatively compact and stealthy Airbus Helicopters VSR700 is a multi-mission naval UAS designed to operate alongside other shipborne naval assets. It seeks to provide commanders with a tactical picture. The VSR700 flew for 10 minutes within visual line of sight. It had previously flown tethered. Powered by a Continental CD-155 four-cylinder, FADEC-controlled turbodiesel running on Jet A, VSR sea trials are planned for late 2021.

Embry-Riddle and Northrop Grumman Survey Sea Turtles

The Turtle Tech project teams Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northrop Grumman with the Brevard Zoo in Florida. It’s a drone-based surveillance effort to better understand the behavior of sea turtles. The computer visioning systems can identify individual sea turtles, as well as their species, gender, and unique markings. Funded with a Northrop Grumman Foundation grant, Embry-Riddle researchers plan to use the Applied Aeronautics fixed-wing Albatross VTOL and the DJI Matrice 210.

Thermal drone used to save 15 baby Deer in Norway

A wildlife and outfield manager in Norway has been saving injured baby deer using a thermal camera equipped drone. Flights are conducted every morning between 2 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. looking for injured baby deer in grasslands. The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual is equipped with both a thermal camera and visual camera.

Storedot demonstrates worlds first 5 minute charge of a commercial drone

StoreDot is a battery developer that specializes in ultra-fast charging (UFC) technology. The company is applying UFC technology to the drone industry and they have demonstrated fully-charging a commercial drone in five minutes. StoreDot says their Li-ion batteries are “based on novel nanostructured materials combined with proprietary organic binders and enhanced electrolytes.”

The Night A Mysterious Drone Swarm Descended On Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

On two successive evenings in September 2019, a swarm of drones flew over the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station in Arizona, America’s most powerful nuclear plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) called it a “drone-a-palooza.” Documents obtained from the NRC through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that four to six drones were involved. They were estimated to be over 2 feet in diameter with flashing lights.

307 UAV Battery Technology

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Airbus funds new UAV battery technology and flys a rotary-wing UAV, an upcoming UAS Traffic Management workshop, a hydrogen-powered UAV for the Navy, a heavy-payload long-range drone, drones for all budgets, drone racing at Daytona, and how mosquitoes might help drones make less noise.

UAV News

Airbus’s VSR700 Rotary-wing UAV Takes Flight

Airbus Helicopters has flown their VSR700 prototype at a drone test center in France. It’s a rotary-wing, multi-mission Naval UAS (RWUAS) that was tethered on 30-meter cables and fitted with stabilizing outriggers. A year ago, Airbus flew an optionally piloted demonstrator for the VSR700 that was based on an existing light helicopter. This new prototype is redesigned with a payload bay replacing the flight deck.

Airbus Funds Next-Gen UAV Battery Technology

Airbus Defence and Space is providing financing to battery technology company Amprius. That company manufactures high energy density lithium-ion batteries based on silicon nanowire anode technology. Amprius says their batteries provide up to 50% more power than standard lithium-ion batteries. The Airbus funding is expected to help Amprius develop a higher volume production capacity as well as even higher energy density cells.

FAA and NASA Drone Industry Workshop

The FAA and NASA will jointly host an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Pilot Program (UPP) Phase 2 Industry Workshop. The half-day workshop is scheduled for December 9, 2019, at NASA’s Ames Conference Center in Mountain View, California. Registration is free but attendance will be limited to the first 150 to register, with a limit of two attendees per organization. For additional background, see: FAA/NASA UAS Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP) [PDF]

Navy Accepts First-of-its-kind HYCOPTER Hydrogen Powered UAS

The six-rotor HYCOPTER from H3 Dynamics is the first hydrogen fuel cell-powered rotary-wing UAS for the US Navy. The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California took delivery of their HYCOPTER on October 25, 2019. With a takeoff weight of about 35 pounds and a blade tip-to-blade tip diameter of 7 feet, the UAS can carry a five-pound payload in an open bay for about 2 ½ hours. The HYCOPTER uses an ultralight PEM fuel cell and compressed hydrogen gas. Austin, Texas-based HES Energy Systems is a subsidiary of H3 Dynamics and describes the HYCOPTER on its website as “Designed and manufactured in the USA.”

UAVita Showcases a Heavy-Payload, Long-Range UAV Drone

The UAVita Discovery is a medium-sized, fixed-wing UAV that can carry heavy payloads over a long range. Originally used for crop dusting and precision ag, it’s now being used for other long-range missions such as search and rescue, highway monitoring, and powerline inspections.

Video: UAvita Systems Showcases Their Heavy-payload Drone at Commercial UAV Expo 2019

Seasoned Pilot or Aviation Amateur, Here Are 5 Drones for All Budgets

Consider the DROCON Bugs 3, Syma X5C, Parrot Mambo Drone FPV Kit, DJI Spark, or even the DJI Inspire 2.

Drone racing takes a whirl in Daytona Stadium

Over 1,000 drone racers tried to qualify for the 5th annual RaceDayQuads 2019 MultiGP Drone Racing Championship in Daytona Stadium. The sports class saw 125 racers qualify, while 85 qualified for the pro-competition. MultiGP is a global, professional, drone racing league with hundreds of international chapters and over 27,000 registered drone racers.

Sounds of mosquito mating rituals could lead to quieter drones

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University discovered that mosquitoes can focus the buzz they make in the direction of potential mates. A paper published in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics says, “…understanding the strategies and adaptations employed by insects such as mosquitoes to control their aeroacoustic noise could eventually provide insights into the development of quiet drones and other bioinspired micro-aerial vehicles.”

UAV 005 Drones are a Grass Roots Effort

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PZL SW-4

This Episode:

Optionally piloted helicopters, fast response from the FAA to drone requests, a forecast of the global UAV market, success tips for UAV suppliers, and water sampling drones.

The News:

Polish SW-4 Solo to Assist Royal Navy Rotary-Wing UAS (RWUAS) Study

The SW-4 SOLO RUAS (Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial System) is being introduced by PZL-Świdnik, and Agusta-Westland based on the PZL SW-4 light single engine helicopter. This Optionally Piloted Helicopter (OPH) is under the RWUAS (Rotary Wing Unmanned Air System) Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) programme as a conceptual multi-role UAV for the UK Royal Navy.

Others have activity in the OPH arena: Sikorsky Aircraft has a research program called Matrix Technology to develop systems and software for autonomous, optionally piloted, and piloted vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. They are using an optionally piloted S-76 called the Sikorsky Autonomous Research Aircraft (S.A.R.A.) as a flying lab, and plan to demonstrate operation with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk.

Eurocopter (now to be  renamed Airbus Helicopter) has conducted demonstration flights with an optionally piloted EC145. Reportedly, they now plan to look to OPV variants of its product line.

FAA Cuts the Red Tape to Let UAS Work Yosemite Wildfire

Desperate to get a better view of the giant wildfire last month, the call for help from the Incident Commander went to the California governor’s office, then to the Department of Defense and the FAA for help. An emergency Certificate of Authorization was issued within hours by the FAA to the California Air National Guard to fly to the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator over the Yosemite fire.

The Global UAV Market 2013-2023

A report titled “The Global UAV Market 2013–2023” has been released by Strategic Defence Intelligence. This $4,800 report states that the Global UAV market is estimated at US$114.7 billion during the next 10 years, with most coming from North America, but Europe spending US$24.3 billion on UAVs. HALE UAVs are forecast to constitute the largest share of the UAV market.

Managing The UAV Madness: 5 Keys To Success

Agricultural applications for unmanned aircraft is probably a huge opportunity. Robert Blair is a wheat grower in Kendrick, Idaho. He spoke at the InfoAg Conference about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and offered some advice.

University of Nebraska Lincoln helping develop water-sampling drones

ASCTEC Firefly

ASCTEC Firefly

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded a $956,210 grant  for the three-year “Co-Aerial Ecologist: Robotic Water Sampling and Sensing in the Wild” project as part of the National Robotics Initiative. UNL is seeking to develop a UAV that can be located near a water source, fly out and take water samples, then return them for analysis.

They already have a modified AscTec Firefly copter that can take several 20ml water samples, but it can only fly a 20 minute mission. They hope to extend that and make the vehicle autonomous. Perhaps perform on-board analysis of the water samples. From the video, you can see they’ve demonstrated the copter in the lab and outside in a pool. This is taking place at the Nebraska Intelligent MoBile Unmanned Systems Lab (NIMBUS).