Tag Archives: Urban Air Mobility

401 Air-One Vertiport Opens

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A new vertiport opens in England, a new military tactical UAS, detect-and-avoid system deployment at a UAS test site, major Army drone swarm test, request for malicious drone legislation, NTSB wants more drones and pilots, DJI suspends business in Russia and Ukraine, and Drone Safety Day.

The Vertiport from Urban-Air Port.
Courtesy Urban-Air Port

UAV News

World’s first airport for drones opens in the heart of Coventry

An Air-One vertiport opened in Coventry, England for demonstrations of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. It is planned to remain in Coventry for at least a month then will move to other UK locations, and internationally. The circular vertiport structure with a central takeoff and landing zone includes traveler processing, arrival/departure lounge, baggage scanning, and retail.

Urban-Air Port Limited designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and operates infrastructure for urban air transport such as air taxis and autonomous delivery drones. The company wants to create a ground infrastructure that permits a “zero-emission-mobility ecosystem” and cuts congestion and air pollution. The company plans more than 200 vertiports worldwide over the next five years.

Meet ‘Phoenix Ghost,’ the US Air Force’s new drone perfect for Ukraine’s war with Russia

The Phoenix Ghost Tactical UAS was designed by the US Air Force and manufactured by AEVEX Aerospace. Similar to the Switchblade, it’s believed to be a single-use drone but the Pentagon isn’t providing any details.

NUAIR Partners with CAL Analytics and FAA

Under a Technical Assistance program with the FAA, CAL Analytics will deploy its detect-and-avoid system for low-altitude BVLOS operations at the New York UAS Test Site. NUAIR (the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance) manages the 50-mile Drone Corridor and FAA uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) Test Site at Griffiss International Airport in New York. 

The CAL detect-and-avoid service provides a suite of UTM services including situational awareness, conflict detection, health monitoring, and various weather services. The recent BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee recommended that the FAA develop a methodology for approving safety-critical UTM services for BVLOS.

Army To Test Its Biggest Interactive Drone Swarm Ever Over Utah

The Army’s 2022 Experimental Demonstration Gateway Exercise (EDGE 22) will test up to 30 small networked drones launched from air and ground vehicles. This will include Area-I ALTIUS 600 drones and Raytheon-built Coyote drones. The swarm will use infrared sensors and electronic warfare payloads to detect enemy signals, establish their positions, and send the information back through the network to command posts and manned assault aircraft. The EDGE 22 exercise runs from April 25 to May 12, 2022, at Dugway Proving Ground near Salt Lake City, Utah.

The White House wants to counter the use of drones in the U.S.

The White House issued an action plan to deal with malicious drones: FACT SHEET: The Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan. The plan asks to “adopt legislation to close critical gaps in existing law and policy that currently impede government and law enforcement from protecting the American people and our vital security interests.” The action plan:

  1. Expands the set of tools and actors who can protect against UAS by reauthorizing and expanding existing counter‑UAS authorities for the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, State, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA in limited situations. 
  2. Expands UAS detection authorities for state, local, territorial, and Tribal (SLTT) law enforcement agencies and critical infrastructure owners and operators.
  3. Creates a Federally-sponsored pilot program for selected SLTT law enforcement agency participants to perform UAS mitigation activities and permit critical infrastructure owners and operators to purchase authorized equipment to be used by appropriate Federal or SLTT law enforcement agencies to protect their facilities;
  4. Establishes a list of U.S. Government-authorized detection equipment, approved by Federal security and regulatory agencies, to guide authorized entities in purchasing UAS detection systems
  5. Establishes oversight and enablement mechanisms to support critical infrastructure owners and operators in purchasing counter-UAS equipment for use by authorized Federal entities or SLTT law enforcement agencies;
  6. Establishes a National Counter-UAS Training Center to increase training accessibility and promote interagency cross-training and collaboration;
  7. Creates a Federal UAS incident tracking database
  8. Establishes a mechanism to coordinate research, development, testing, and evaluation of UAS detection and mitigation technology across the Federal government;
  9. Enacts a comprehensive criminal statute that sets clear standards for legal and illegal uses, closes loopholes in existing Federal law, and establishes adequate penalties to deter the most serious UAS-related crimes; and 
  10. Enhances cooperation with the international community on counter‑UAS technologies, as well as the systems designed to defeat them.

National Transportation Safety Board Wants To Expand Drone Operations

The NTSB has a history of using drones in their investigations to document accident scenes and process the data using photogrammetry software. Currently, they have five pilots and seven drones but the NTSB wants more pilots and more drones.

Chinese drone maker DJI halts business in Russia and Ukraine

In an April 26 statement (DJI Reassesses Sales Compliance Efforts In Light Of Current Hostilities), the company said:

“DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine. We are engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the temporary suspension of business operations in the affected territories.”

DJI

Ukrainian authorities claimed the Russian military was “using DJI products in order to navigate” missile attacks, and said DJI was complicit in Russian attacks. DJI has publicly stated they are opposed to their products being used for military purposes.

Drone Safety Day

The FAA has organized a National Drone Safety Awareness Week each year from 2019 through 2021. This year, however, the FAA is calling for a single Drone Safety Day, Saturday, June 18, 2022, with five focus areas:

  • Education – How to safely operate drones and highlighting how drones are being used in education.
  • Economics – Highlighting the economic, societal, and safety benefits of using drone technologies.
  • Equity – Opening opportunities for all operators.
  • Environment – Understanding the environmental and sustainability benefits of drone technologies.
  • Emergencies – Learn how drones are used in emergency situations such as: natural disasters, search & rescue, firefighting, public safety, and other uses.

On the National Center for Autonomous Technologies Drone Safety Day page, you can browse all the Drone Safety Day events, sign up to attend, and submit your own event.

UAV Video of the Week

Insane FPV Footage of Downhill Urban Bike Racing in Chile

The Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo urban downhill bike race is held annually in Chile. The 2-kilometer course goes down narrow staircases and alleyways and even through a house. A video of racer Thomas Slavik cycling through the run was filmed by the Dutch Drone Gods, considered to be among the best FPV drone pilots in the world.

303 Ehang Autonomous Aerial Vehicle

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EHang is flying its urban air mobility vehicle contender. Remote identification of drones is moving forward. Also, using drones to measure methane emissions, find standing water where mosquitoes breed, assess hurricane damage, explore Titan, and plant trees.

UAV News

EHang completes first passenger-carrying autonomous aerial vehicle demonstration flight

The EHang 216 passenger-carrying autonomous aerial vehicle (or AAV) was flown at the 2019 Northeast Asia Expo in August. Ehang has been demonstrating the aircraft at several cities in China as well as in Austria, the Netherlands, and Qatar. Ehang says, “This is a critical step towards making our dream [a] reality and to make urban air mobility broadly available and affordable as a safe, fast, and eco-friendly transportation alternative.”

Video: EHang AAV Trial Flights Across Cities in China

Electronic License Plates for Drones May Come Soon

A draft of the proposed ASTM standard for electronic identification of drones is available as ASTM WK65041, “New Specification for UAS Remote ID and Tracking.” During operation, a drone would transmit a unique ID, location, and vector. The chairman of ASTM International’s Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems said, “You can just take a phone, point it up at a drone and get its electronic ID if you see it doing something dangerous. [And you can report it] just like reporting a car’s license plate number.” Old drones can be retrofitted with ID chips that would plug into their USB ports and might cost $7 to $12.

BP deploys continuous methane measurement for new major oil and gas projects

BP said it is going to monitor its methane emissions around the world using a technology called gas cloud imaging and drones. Inspections would take 30 minutes instead of seven days. The sensor technology was originally designed by NASA for the Mars Curiosity Rover. This is a key part of BP’s strategy to deploy a suite of complementary methane detecting techniques across new and existing facilities.

Anthropology professor deploys drone to fight disease in Africa

Mosquitoes are the main transmitters of malaria, and they breed in standing water. Agricultural irrigation can create standing water which is difficult to detect with satellite imagery. In the East African nation of Malawi, Professor Jon Carroll and other researchers from Oakland University spent nine days collecting data on the effectiveness of drone imagery to detect standing water.

AIRT uses UAS to perform damage assessment operations in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian

Two organizations have formed a joint-reconnaissance team to survey the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian: the Airborne International Response Team (AIRT) and the Southeast Florida Region 7 All-Hazards Incident Management Team (SEFL-R7 AHIMT). Disaster scenes were mapped by UAS with high-resolution camera systems.

Meet The Nuclear-Powered Self-Driving Drone NASA Is Sending To A Moon Of Saturn

The Dragonfly is a dual-rotor quadcopter, about the size of a compact car, autonomous, and nuclear powered. Expected to launch from Earth in 2026 and arrive on Titan in 2034, Dragonfly will explore Titan’s dunes, mountains, gullies, and rivers and lakes of liquid methane.

NASA Video: New Dragonfly Mission Flying Landing Sequence Animation.

Middle East drones signal end to era of fast jet air supremacy

Air superiority has been key to winning wars since airplanes were invented. But compared to the world’s major air forces, drones are small, low cost, and they don’t put a pilot into the war-zone.

This startup lets you subscribe to support an army of drones that’s planting millions of trees

A new startup called Now wants to “mobilize humanity to reverse the climate crisis.” The organization was created by 19-year-old activist and musical artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez who says that if a trillion trees are planted, they could capture two-thirds of the carbon that humans have emitted since the industrial revolution. The subscription concept of Now would fund planting trees with drones. See also 19-Year-Old Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Isn’t Waiting For Permission to Solve the Climate Crisis: “The Time Is NOW.”

Conference

Commercial UAV Expo Americas 2019, October 28-30, 2019 in Las Vegas. Video: Commercial UAV Expo 2018 in a minute.

UAV218 UAS Integration Pilot Program Details Emerge

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Additional details of the FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program have emerged, with webinars held on that topic by the FAA and others. Also, Boeing’s acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences is complete, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is expanding its research scope to include Urban Air Mobility, and drone strikes on manned aircraft.

UAV News

UAS Integration Pilot Program Webinar

UAS Integration Pilot Program

The FAA conducted several one-hour UAS Integration Pilot Program webinar sessions. The Program seeks to achieve BVLOS and other complex operations (flight at night, over people, and operational coordination with manned aircraft), promote innovation, develop regulations that reduce the need for operations by exception. address security concerns, and balance national and local interests.

The 17-minute UAS Integration Pilot Program Webinar video provided an overview of the program, the application process, acceptance criteria, and deadlines.

We recorded the live Q&A session from the November 3, 2017, webinar, which runs about 40 minutes:

To learn more, about the UAS Integration Pilot Program, see these FAA webpages:

UAS Webinar: Regulatory and Policy Developments

Hogan Lovells Unmanned Aircraft Systems is offering a free webinar Thursday, November 16, 2017, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Eastern to discuss key UAS regulatory and policy developments and provide insight on the Part 107 waiver process. Emily Avant, Senior Counsel for CNN, will be participating to discuss CNN’s new waiver for operations over people, what it means for the broader commercial UAS industry, and tips for making your waiver application a success.

Other webinar topics will include:

  • Status update on Part 107 waivers granted to date
  • The inside scoop on CNN’s precedent-setting waiver for operations over people
  • Developing a safety case for a Part 107 waiver application
  • The Trump Administration’s new UAS Integration Pilot Program
  • Rollout of the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system
  • Upcoming FAA rulemakings and next steps moving forward

Register for the Hogan Lovells webinar here.

Also, Drones and the Legal Landscape from the AOPA Drone Talk Series will be held November 10, 2017, 8 PM Eastern.

Boeing completes acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences

Boeing announced the completion of its acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora will operate under Boeing Engineering, Test & Technology as a subsidiary called Aurora Flight Sciences, A Boeing Company. It retains its independent operating model. Boeing first announced the agreement with Aurora on Oct. 5, 2017, pending U.S. government approval.

NASA Embraces Urban Air Mobility (UAM), Calls for Market Study

NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is expanding its research scope to include Urban Air Mobility or UAM.

UAM is defined in this article as “a safe and efficient system for air passenger and cargo transportation within an urban area, inclusive of small package delivery and other urban Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) services, which supports a mix of onboard/ground-piloted and increasingly autonomous operations.”

NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics Jaiwon Shin says, “We plan to conduct the research and development, and test the concepts and technologies that establish feasibility and help set the requirements. Those requirements then serve to make using autonomous vehicles, electric propulsion, and high density airspace operations in the urban environment safe, efficient and economically viable.”

ARMD awarded contracts to Booz Allen Hamilton and to Crown Consulting to conduct market studies on the policy, economic, social, environmental, and legal barriers to enabling UAM; and also to estimate how much potential demand there is for UAM.

Here’s How Drones Do (and Don’t) Threaten Passenger Aircraft

Recently, a civilian drone struck a U.S. Army UH-60M Blackhawk helicopter and a drone hit a Beechcraft King Air. Studies have been conducted by the Crashworthiness for Aerospace Structures and Hybrids (CRASH) Lab, the U.K.’s Department for Transport and Military Aviation Authority, and George Mason University, but there is little data on the damage small drones can cause in a collision.