Monthly Archives: September 2020

346 The Longest Organ Delivery Flight by UAS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:06 — 20.7MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Long-distance organ delivery flight, a survey-grade micro drone, a UK drone zone, research on multi-fuel drones, heavy-lift drones, a UAV landing at a commercial airport, locating pregnant dolphins, Verizon’s wildfire drone waiver, and a former FAA Administrator lands a new job.

UAV News

Mission Go completes longest organ delivery flight via UAS in Las Vegas

In this MissionGO and Nevada Donor Network collaboration, two successful test flights were made. The first flight delivered research corneas from Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center to Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican, San Martín Campus. The second flight delivered  a research kidney from an airport to a location outside of a small town in the Las Vegas desert. This was the longest organ delivery flight in UAS history.

IdeaForge Raises The Bar With The Launch Of RYNO UAV

The RYNO UAV is a survey-grade micro-drone from IdeaForge, a drone manufacturer in India. RYNO is designed for high accuracy mapping applications and delivers centimeter-level accuracy. The drone has a flight time of over 40 minutes and a range of up to 4 km. The performance of the RYNO UAV is claimed to be comparable to more expensive categories of drones.

U.K. has plans to create aerial drone zone superhighways to contain UAV traffic

The U.K. is establishing a commercial drone corridor called the “Arrow Drone Zone.” Airspace will be available to any fully automated drones, including flying beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS). The zone will be located in the town of Reading, to the west of London, and managed by Altitude Angel with their GuardianUTM O/S platform.

US Army funding research to allow drones to run on multiple fuel sources 

The Army awarded the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign a four-year, $8 million contract to research multi-fuel chemistry and investigate advanced propulsion technologies for high-speed air launches. Researchers will study the ignition chemistry of fuels using machine learning algorithms and develop materials for novel ignition assistant technologies for flexible-fuel drones.

Volocopter teams up with Schenker to deploy heavy lift drones

The two companies want to gain practical flying the VoloDrone before the VoloCity air taxi enters service. The drone Is remote-controlled, can lift up to 200 kilograms (440 lbs.), and has a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles). Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said, “The logistics opportunity in the urban market is just as big as the passenger market.” 

Israeli Company Carries Out Historic First-Ever UAV Landing at a Commercial Airport

The landing was conducted by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with their Heron reconnaissance UAV. The landing at Ben Gurion International Airport was entirely remote-controlled. This is reported to be the first time a UAV was operated alongside commercial flights in civilian airspace.

Video: Heron UAV Landing at Ben Gurion Airport

Dolphin reproductive research aided by UH Drones

The University of Hawaii is collaborating with Dolphin Quest on a study to better understand the health of dolphin populations. A Ph.D. student has been operating a drone over a pregnant bottlenose dolphin at the Dolphin Quest facility. The goal is to detect pregnancy in female dolphins in the open ocean.

Verizon deploys remote network-connected drone during Big Hollow Wildfire

The FAA granted a special temporary waiver to Skyward, A Verizon company, that allows civilian operations to inspect critical communications infrastructure in the U.S. Company pilots can fly the Percepto Sparrow drone from their homes to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington. The waiver permits operations 24 hours a day, with less than 3 miles of visibility, and no pilot or observer on site. Skyward spent nearly a year testing and proving that it could safely fly without onsite personnel.

Former Head of Federal Aviation Administration Michael Huerta Joins D-Fend Solutions’ Advisory Board

The former top Federal Aviation Administration executive brings airspace management and airport safety expertise to the D-Fend counter-drone technology company. 

UAV Video of the Week

Colors of Vermont Fall Foliage Captured in Drone Footage

Vermont photographer John Rowe captured drone footage of the fall colors at Norton Pond.

345 SeaClear Project to Clean the Ocean

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:01 — 22.7MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

SeaClear aims to clean ocean trash, the Loyal Wingman powers up its engine, a drone crashes into wind-turbine, drone makers see an opportunity in anti-China sentiment, marine animal rescue, photographing the orange landscapes caused by wildfire smoke, and why harassing a police officer with a drone is a bad idea.

UAV News

Autonomous Drones and Vehicles Collect Rubbish from Ocean Floor

There is a lot of trash in the oceans. One estimate puts it at around 26-66 million tons of waste with 94% of that is on the seafloor. The EU-funded SeaClear project wants to clean up the mess. Under this project An unmanned surface vessel acts as a “mothership.” Tethered to it are drones and remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) that will use AI-based algorithms to map, identify, and classify the rubbish. A combined suction-gripper manipulator will collect it.

Loyal Wingman combat drone powers up engine for the first time

The Boeing Australia Loyal Wingman aircraft that was rolled out in May 2020 had its first engine run. Also known as the Airpower Teaming System (ATS), the first test flight is expected later in 2020.

Drone crashes into wind turbine in ‘extremely rare’ incident

Earlier this year, a DJI Phantom 4 crashed into one of the four wind turbines at a sewage treatment facility. The drone was being used to survey the Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report [PDF] says: “The pilot was using the NATS Drone Assist app1 as part of the flight planning and risk assessment of the flight; however, the app did not mention the wind turbines, so the pilot looked up “windturbine height” on the internet which returned a height of 328 ft.” Except the wind turbine actually has a height of 413 ft above the ground.

How drones can make inspections smart and automated for utilities

According to Power Engineering International, since the Covid-19 pandemic, power companies are turning to drones for inspections. The article describes the recently unveiled DJI Matrice 300 RTK commercial drone platform – a quadcopter with fold-up arms, up to 55 minutes of flight time, and transmission up to 15 km away.

Drone maker hurt by US China Rift opening door to US rivals

Rightly or wrongly, DJI has taken a hit to their image because of accusations about data transmission to China. Governments responded with bans on Chinese drones but some drone makers are taking advantage of the situation. Last month the Defense Department approved Skydio, Parrot, and three others to supply U.S.-manufactured drones to federal government agencies. DJI announced an internet “kill switch” on more drones that stops data transmission on sensitive flying missions.

Using drones to support marine animal research and conservation

Sometimes marine animals become distressed: tangled in a net, tangled in some of that plastic floating around the oceans, or they may be sick. Drones can be an asset because they can assess the situation so that marine biologists (and others) can bring the equipment they need to help the animal. Marine biologist Genni Brookshire (an FAA-certified drone pilot) and her team partnered with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to find the pitch and volume levels that stress marine life the least. They plan to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed journal and to make the information available for free on Ceto Marine Research’s website.

The sky is on fire in San Francisco, and we flew a drone through it

Verge video director Vjeran Pavic took photographs of San Francisco and Sutro Tower just after sunrise using a drone.

Man cited for repeatedly flying drones over private property

An Ontario man received 13 citations for flying a drone in a harassing manner over residential areas. The Class B violations were issued under ORS 837.370 for operating a drone over privately owned premises in a manner that “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly harass or annoy the owner or occupant” of those premises. The man is scheduled for an October 7 court appearance.

UAV Video of the Week

Video drone footage of abandoned dinosaur park in Arkansas

Video: Drone Flight Over Abandoned Dinosaur Theme Park

344 Skyward

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:12 — 22.9MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

The FAA selected eight companies to help establish the technology requirement framework for drone remote identification, a key enabling technology. One of those companies is Skyward, a Verizon company that develops commercial drone management and airspace intelligence platforms. They acted as a USS (UAS Service Supplier) for the cohort.

Guests

This episode we are joined by Skyward president Mariah Scott and product manager Amanda Breese.

Mariah Scott has taken businesses from creation through exit, and built new markets in commercial drones, healthcare, identity services, and media delivery across North America, Europe, and Asia. As the president of Skyward, she helps enterprises realize the potential of drones. She’s built the company through startup to a successful acquisition by Verizon. Skyward software now manages drone programs for Fortune 500 companies as well as drone flight service startups. Skyward is actively developing the global standards needed to enable this new technology.

Amanda Breese is a product manager for Skyward’s web application. She leads frontend development and works closely with design and engineering teams to deliver Skyward software features. Amanda has ten years of experience working in engineering and support roles. 

We discuss the significance of drone remote identification and the private/public partnership model used to create the technology framework. Skyward worked primarily on network-based remote identification but broadcast-based solutions are also part of the framework.

Skyward has recently expanded its Aviation Management Platform to include a new Approval Workflow feature, which allows drone crews to seek approval from managers before deploying to the field. This supports Skyward’s strategy to help companies mitigate risks and liability in their corporate drone operations as they adopt new technology.

343 Optionally Piloted

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:23 — 24.4MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Optionally piloted firefighting helicopters, was it a jetpack or a manikin on a drone, the Amazon Prime Air exemption with conditions, Japan Airlines interest in drones, UAS RF spectrum news, and using a drone to deliver a spare part to a drilling platform.

UAV News

Taking the Fight to the Night

Fighting wildfires is dangerous at night and typically aerial firefighting is suspended. However, optionally piloted aircraft could be a solution. Kaman Corp. is converting its conventionally piloted K-MAX heavy-lift helicopter to be optionally piloted. Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky Aviation company is developing the Matrix aerial firefighting helicopter solution that is intended to make just about any helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft optionally piloted.

Mystery jetpack man flying by commercial pilots at LAX may have been a manikin on a drone

Pilots on two airplanes on final approach into Los Angeles International Airport reported seeing someone with a jetpack at 3,000 feet. Was it a jetpack, or was it a manikin strapped to a large electric drone?

Amazon Prime Air drones secure FAA exemption

The FAA has approved exemption 18602 for the Amazon Prime Air MK27 unmanned aircraft to operate in cargo delivery operations without an airworthiness certificate. The approval allows Amazon to continue operations and development without certification, but with a number of limitations.

Amazon drones can’t make city deliveries. The company must first solve lawn mowers falling from the sky

The MK27 drones weigh 88 pounds, about the weight of a standard lawn mower. Some people have safety concerns since the Amazon flight manuals the company shares with the FAA are proprietary. We don’t know how Amazon is planning to mitigate risks.

Japan Airlines backed by Tokyo government to study drones

Japan Airlines (JAL) and four other companies will undertake a study to explore the logistics of a drone delivery service by 2022. The drones would deliver pharmaceuticals to hospitals, food to offices and apartments, and provide drone security patrols. Drone project testing is planned for Tokyo Bay and stations around the Metropolitan area. Besides JAL, the other companies are KDDI (the telecommunications operator), East Japan Railways, Weathernews, and Terra Drone Corporation.

FCC Study supports using 5 GHZ band for Drone Operations

In the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, Congress asked the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau to submit a report on spectrum allocation for unmanned aircraft. The FCC has submitted that report, which recommends proceeding with rulemaking to enable the use of the 5030-5091 MHz band.

Equinor Performs world’s first offshore logistics operation via Drone

Nordic Unmanned flew a drone carrying a 3D-printed part to the Troll A platform in the North Sea. The part was for the lifeboat system on the platform is operated by Equinor ASA, a Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company. The 80 kilometre flight took about one hour at an altitude of about 5000 feet. The drone was a Camcopter S-100 model, manufactured by Schiebel.

UAV Video of the Week

Mentioned

Commercial UAV Expo Americas, virtual event, September 15-17, 2020.

Commercial UAV Expo Europe, virtual event, December 1-3, 2020.