Tag Archives: incidents

378 UAS Incident Map

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:47 — 19.1MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

An interactive UAS incident map, an airspace coordinator collaborates with archaeologists, a drone swarm that sniffs out gas leaks, the X-56B UAV is destroyed, making drones and air taxis quiet, and AI drones that find meteorites.

UAV News

Explore Thousands Of FAA Drone And Unidentified Aircraft Incident Reports With Our Interactive Tool

The Drive has taken FAA incident reports of UAS and unidentified aircraft and created an interactive and searchable UAS incident map. The approximately 10,400 incident reports cover the period from November of 2014 until December 2020. Find the UAS incident map at UAV Geography. (Be patient, it can load slowly.)

Pax UAS Airspace Coordinators Collaborate with Local Archaeologists

Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) is the earliest settlement in Maryland with a fort erected in 1634. Archeologists working the site considered drones to be part of their archaeological toolkit, but they didn’t have an understanding of the regulatory requirements. Pax River’s then-UAS Airspace Coordinator Air Traffic Controller 1st Class James “Cody” Green stepped in and started working with HSMC to ensure the drone operations were safe and legal.

Swarm of autonomous tiny drones can localize gas leaks

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology Micro Air Vehicle Lab and Harvard University have developed a swarm of tiny drones that can autonomously detect and localize gas sources in cluttered indoor environments. The bio-inspired navigation and search strategy algorithm is called “Sniffy Bug.”

Video: Sniffy Bug: A Fully Autonomous Swarm of Gas-Seeking Nano Quadcopters in Cluttered Environments

NASA’s X-56B UAV destroyed in crash on 9 July

A “flight anomaly” caused the vehicle to crash. The aircraft was being used to test ways to suppress flutter. It is not clear if other X-56B vehicles exist, or when testing will resume.

Whisper Aero emerges from stealth to quiet drones and air taxis

Startup Whisper Aero believes they can make drones quiet. An electric thruster would reduce the drone’s noise down to background levels that would be difficult for the human ear to hear. Whisper isn’t saying much about their thruster design.

Automated drones being taught to locate fallen meteorites

Less than 2% of meteorites are recovered but University of California, Davis researchers believe they can increase that percentage using AI and automated drones. These would fly in grid patterns at low altitudes over areas where they suspect meteorites have fallen. Images from the UAV would be analyzed by software that employed machine learning to differentiate meteorites from terrestrial rocks.

282 Drones and Wildlife

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:39 — 17.0MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Drones for studying wildlife, wetlands, and tornadoes. Using them to resupplying troops and support a Mars rover. Also, gender diversity study of the drone industry, and airplane incidents that turn out to not be caused by drones.

Guest

Executive Wildlife Producer Heather.

UAV News

A Guide To Using Drones To Study Wildlife: First, Do No Harm

A Best practice for minimising unmanned aerial vehicle disturbance to wildlife in biological field research has been published for researchers using unmanned aircraft to study wildlife.

Drones will gather data for tornado research project

The TORUS program (Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells) will use fixed-wing UAS to assist scientists in studying the formation of tornadoes in thunderstorms. The $2.5M project is funded by the NSF in cooperation with NOAA, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Texas Tech University, and the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Marines test plywood drone for disposable resupply

DARPA and the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory are experimenting with low-cost resupply drones from Logistic Gliders Inc. There are 10.4 feet long with a 23-foot wingspan, can be made from plywood or aluminum, and can carry 700 pounds of cargo.

Video: Logistic Gliders Inc. Flight Test Highlights as of Jan 2019

UAS Lidar for Ecological Restoration of Wetlands

A YellowScan Surveyor Lidar-equipped UAV is being used to create an accurate digital terrain model (DTM) of a bog in France. Understanding the hydrology of the area is key to the restoration efforts.

Ready for the Red Planet! NASA’s Mars Helicopter Aces Key Flight Tests

NASA announced the successful first flight of the 4-pound aircraft that will launch with a NASA Mars rover in July 2020.

Gender Diversity In the UAV (Drone) Industry

A UK study looked at gender diversity in the commercial drone industry. After looking at 112 drone service companies, the study found that “The average rate of women employment was 13% and “…women are concentrated in non-technical positions, such as sales and administration.” The study is published in the International Journal of Gender, Science and Techology.

Rod Vaughan’s plane crash not caused by drone – CAA

The Civil Aviation Authority has determined that the March 2018 incident was not a drone strike, but was instead a windscreen failure. As a related note, it had been concluded that the December 18, 2018, Aeromexico incident was not drone-related.

269 Rogue Drone at the Airport

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:40 — 21.8MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

A rogue drone repeatedly violated Gatwick Airport airspace with massive consequences. Separately, a drone is suspected of colliding with an airliner. Also, ANSI releases a standardization roadmap, and drones are being used to study peatlands in Australia, deliver items over a mobile network, locate nests of protected birds, and support Mars rover tests.

UAV News

Rogue drone pilot taunts police: Army join snipers in cat and mouse game as Gatwick drone is spotted over runway AGAIN just minutes before it was due to re-open – with chaos set to last until Christmas Eve

Gatwick Airport was thrown into chaos as the airport was shut down after a rogue drone repeatedly entered the airspace. Some 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 people were stranded. A drone buzzed the airport many times and the authorities were hard-pressed to remove the threat.

ANSI Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Published

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced the publication of the Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Version 1.0). The roadmap was developed by the Institute’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) “to coordinate and accelerate the development of the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to facilitate the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system of the United States.” The roadmap examines 64 issue areas and identified 60 gaps with no published standard or specification.

Using Drones to Monitor Peatlands

Researchers in Australia are interested in monitoring peatlands and they are using ultra-high spatial resolution imagery from drones. The researchers want to test the viability of creating hydrological models that monitor hydrological changes and assist in the rehabilitation of damaged peatlands.

Vodafone Conducts UK’s First Drone Delivery Over a Mobile Network

Vodafone has made a drone delivery over a 4G mobile network. The Christmas drone made a short 800-meter flight and delivered festive treats.

Video: Vodafone brings Christmas cheer with UK’s first drone delivery over a mobile network

Boeing 737 damaged in possible drone crash near U.S.-Mexico border

Aeromexico Flight 773, a Boeing 737, was struck in the nose on final approach to Tijuana International. The damage was substantial and the incident is under investigation.

Drones can detect protected nightjar nests

Cardiff University ecologists conducted a pilot study in South Wales using drones with thermal imaging sensors to locate ground-dwelling nightjars without disturbing the birds.

Self-driving rovers tested in Mars-like Morocco

Three autonomous SherpaTT rovers were tested for over two weeks in an environment close to that of Mars. Prior to the tests, ESA used a drone to map the location and create high-resolution digital elevation models.

Is someone getting a drone for Christmas? Raleigh will help you find a place to fly it.

The City Council of Raleigh, North Carolina approved a policy for where and when people can fly drones in the city’s parks. The city parks department then created a website with the rules and a map showing where you can take off and land: Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) Guidelines in Raleigh Parks.

UAV101 Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:27 — 22.6MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

The optionally piloted Centaur flies at a UAS test site, a NASA-led team tests a sense and avoid system, more bad drone behavior, and an interview with the founder of the Kashmir World Foundation.

News

Remote-controlled passenger flights 5 years away, CEO says

An Aurora Flight Sciences Centaur was flown over the New York UAS test site from Griffiss International Airport. The Centaur is an Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA) based on the Diamond DA42 twin engine airplane. It becomes the first large-scale fixed wing unmanned aircraft to fly at an FAA-approved test site.

Aurora CEO John Langford believes that unmanned aircraft will ultimately make aviation safer, and we may some day see passenger flights with aircraft like the Centaur. The Aurora website has a video of the flight.

NASA tests advanced Ikhana and Global Hawk technology

A team led by NASA is testing a sense and avoid system using the Ikhana UAV, a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Predator B that was acquired by NASA in 2006. Testing in June included 23 encounters with a Beech C90 King Air acting as the intruder. Besides NASA, the team includes General Atomics, the FAA, and Honeywell.

The current test phase includes validation with the Ikhana of sensor, trajectory, and other simulation models. Other tests will utilize a Lockheed S-3B Viking jet from NASA’s Glenn Research Center acting as a high-speed piloted surrogate aircraft.

Seattle police seek pilot after woman knocked out by falling drone

A drone crashed into a building during a parade in Seattle, then fell and struck a woman in the head. Unconscious, she collapsed into her boyfriend’s arms. The drone was turned over to police, as were a physical description and photographs of the man believed to be the pilot. The drone was described as costing about $1,200 and weighing about two pounds.

Guest

Princess Aliyah Pandolfi is founder of the Kashmir World Foundation, established in 2008 to improve the lives of people and animals worldwide. Their projects create healthy habitats for humans and wildlife, and emphasize education, vocational training, job creation programs, and endangered species protection.

Kashmir-Robotics is hosting the worldwide Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge to foster innovation and invention in the design, fabrication, and utilization of unmanned aircraft to assist with counter poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. Kashmir World Foundation
Can 3-D Printed Drones Help Save Wildlife? is a National Geographic video about the Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge.

Videos of the Week

FPVRACING.TV Time Trial Course #2

This video shows what FPV multicopter racing looks like from the quad’s perspective.

Sticks of a Mini Beast

A dramatic view of high speed FPV flying that shows the video feed from the multicopter as well as the operator’s hands on the controller. For more, see Mr. Steele’s Youtube channel

Flytrex Sky – The first delivery drone

The Flytrex Sky claims to be the world’s first internet connected drone that serves as a personal courier.

UAV033 Sharing the Sky

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:53 — 16.6MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

A near miss between a UAV and a crop duster, a new social network for the multi-rotor community, UAVs that survey cemeteries, no beer delivery by drone in the UK, and a red hot video of the week.

The News:

Victorian mine drone in near miss with aircraft

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a final report that says that a Sensefly eBee 178 UAV came within about 100m horizontally and up to 70m vertically from an Ayres S2R crop duster. The ATSB rated this incident, which occurred in September, 2013, as serious. The eBee was flying a four-hour photogrammetric site survey mission over an unused mine.

Drone and Rescue Chopper Almost Collide as Drone Crashes Mount

The ATSB is investigating the incident.

Social Network for the Multi-Rotor Community in Beta Test Phase

DronedUp.com is a new social network for the multi-rotor community. You can contribute to forums and upload your photos and videos. It lists UAV groups and there is a section for pilot reviews. DronedUp also allows the creation of “pages” for content that centers around a specific topic or company. It’s free to join.

UAS Mapping of Cemeteries in the Czech Republic

Czech unmanned aerial systems company UPVISION, and the Brno City Hall, used a hexacopter and a fixed wing UAV to capture images of cemeteries. They’ve put the data into a GIS system which allows them to administrator city cemeteries.

Beer today, gone tomorrow: regulator bans booze drones

As we previously reported, the folks at Lakemaid Beer were told by the FAA that they could not commence operations to deliver beer to ice fishermen in Minnesota by drone. But what about elsewhere? In the UK, UAVs are regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority CAA), under articles 166 and 167 of the Air Navigation Order 2009.

North Carolina lawmakers consider creating board to govern drone use

The North Carolina Office of the Chief Information Officer has recommended that a UAS Governance Board be created to develop UAS policy and create standards for their use and operation. Also that they approve or deny requests for drone use.

Video of the Week:

Dji Phantom flies into Volcano, sent by Todd.

Mentioned:

UAV009 It’s Raining Drones

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:33 — 18.3MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Hermes 450

This Episode:

A Manhattan man almost struck by Quadcopter, Conoco Phillips broken Eagle, Israeli Hermes drone crashes, wine and drones don’t mix or do they?, “game on” for a wildlife conservation challenge, the US decides no drones in Iraq but OK in Japan, and the Mounties start training the Aussies on UAS usage.

The News:

Drone reportedly plummets dozens of stories and crash lands on busy Manhattan streets

The subtitle is “Local cops didn’t follow up but the pilot likely violated federal regulations.” A small drone came down in the City, missing the pedestrians but landing close to one. He took the SD card, gave it to a local network station, and contacted the police. They told him no law had been broken.

Giant Leap Falls Short? ConocoPhillips ScanEagle crashes

One of the first two commercial sUAS permits granted by the FAA, has resulted in a crash. The second ConocoPhillips Scan Eagle flight has resulted in a crash, reportedly due to an engine failure.

IAF drone plunges into the sea

Israeli Defense force Hermes 450 Falls out of the sky. The early assessment is engine failure. The MALE drone has a history of Engine failures and is the third one lost in over two years. Made by Elbit Systems, the Hermes is powered by a UAV Engines Limited Wankel engine.

Drones + Wine: how UAVs can help farmers harvest grapes

3D Robotics brought autonomous, fixed-wing planes and multi-rotors with a point-and-shoot camera mounted inside to a family-owned vineyard. Images were taken automatically based on GPS location, and stitched together, generating a 3D model.

Wildlife Conservation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Challenge

Kashmir Robotics Kashmir-Robotics is hosting the Wildlife Conservation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Challenge with $65,000 in cash prizes. The wcUAVc aims to foster “innovation and invention in the design, fabrication, and utilization of unmanned aircraft to assist with counter poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking.”

U.S. Rules Out a New Drone War in Iraq

In a continuing effort to counter opposing forces, the Iraqi government welcomes lethal drone strikes, but U.S. Government policy is shifting.

Agreement will allow U.S. to fly long-range surveillance drones from base in Japan

The U.S. and Japan have signed an agreement to allow operating the Global Hawk surveillance drones from Japanese bases. Two or three Global Hawks are to fly in the Spring of 2014 “near North Korea” and complement spy satellites.

RCMP shares secrets with Aussies

The Queensland, Australia police have visited the Saskatchewan Royal Canadian Mounted Police as part of a worldwide Winston Churchill Fellowship study on the use of UAVs in policing. After visiting many countries, the Aussie cop was impressed by Canadian use of UAVs.

UAV006 Spy on the Chicken

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:13 — 13.5MB)

Subscribe: Email | RSS

PUMA AE beach launch. Courtesy AeroVironment, Inc.

This Episode:

The Reaper is turned into a Jammer, drones are spying on chickens in Australia, FAA rules for small UAS’s delayed again, UAV privacy questions remain, a new UAS Test Center in the UK, monitoring wildlife with a PUMA and the weather with a Global Hawk, FEMA shuts down Colorado UAV flights, and more multi-rotor’s come down in crowds.

The News:

Jamming Pod Demonstrated on MQ-9 Reaper UAV

General Atomics has fitted a Northrop Grumman jamming pod to an MQ-9 Reaper. The test flight occurred back in April during a U.S. Marine Corps weapons and tactics instructor (WTI) course, but has only recently been made public. Planned for the October WTI course is a demonstration with EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare (EW) jets and smaller unmanned aircraft.

Animal Liberation activists launch spy drone to test free-range claims

Australian activists are concerned that some large free-range chicken farms are not in fact free-range. So for $17,000 they purchased a hexacopter, fitted it with an HD video camera, and flew it over the farms to document their claims. The group says this does not violate trespass laws.

First Commercial UAS Flight Due; Small UAS Rule Delayed

An Insitu ScanEagle was expected to make the first commercial flight of an unmanned aircraft on September 11, under a restricted category type certification the FAA awarded in July. ConocoPhillips was to launch the ScanEagle from a research vessel in the Arctic Ocean west of Alaska to monitor whale migrations and ice flows.

The FAA’s release of a Notice of Proposed RuleMaking (NPRM) which would govern the operation of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) weighing up to 55 pounds has been delayed until early in 2014.

UAV Operations in National Air Space Advance as Privacy Fight Heats Up

The standards being developed for sUAS over: UAV design, including command and control systems, batteries, production, quality assurance, maintenance, and continued airworthiness, the aircraft flight manual, and operations over populated areas.

ASTM International developed the initial standards for the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Committee that was chartered in 2008. That feeds the NPRM process which includes a mechanism for public comment.

The ASTM standards committee for large UAS was unable to make enough progress, so it’s mission was changed to minimum operational performance standards (or MOPS) for detect-and-avoid equipment.

Unlike the slow rule-making progress for commercial UAS, Government agencies (like law enforcement and public safety) can move quickly as a result of the March MOU between the FAA and the Department of Justice.

UK Inaugurates National UAS Test Center

Two UK airports (West Wales Airport and Newquay Cornwall Airport) have launched a “National Aeronautical Center” (NAC) to develop, test and demonstrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), both commercial and military.

More drones coming Saturday in NOAA tests

NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations is testing the PUMA UAS in the Florida Keys to monitor wildlife without disturbing them.

A NASA Global Hawk undergoes systems testing while parked on the ramp at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on the edge of Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for participation in NASA’s Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, or GRIP, hurricane mission.

Spy Drones Turning Up New Data About Hurricanes And Weather and NASA to Investigate Tropical Storm Humberto: Atlantic’s Second “Zombie Tropical Storm”

NASA is flying two Global Hawks from Wallops Island over Hurricanes under the five-year HS3 (Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel) Mission.

Falcon UAV Supports Colorado Flooding Until Grounded by FEMA

The Falcon UAV was providing valuable aerial imagery of the recent tragic Colorado floods. However, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) has arrived with conventional manned aircraft and the Falcon was ordered to stand down.

Multirotor Crashes into Crowd in Spain and Pirate Party Crashes Spy Drone in Front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel

A hexacopter comes down into a packed crowd in Spain, allegedly injuring several people. Meanwhile, in Dresden, Germany at a political party campaign rally, another copter came down in front of the podium.