Tag Archives: MissionGo

395 Counter-UAS Contract

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A $1B counter-UAS contract, Kittyhawk air mobility, sports game halted, no recreational drones in UAE, medical deliveries in the Navajo Nation, locating pets after a disaster, peeking at volcanos, an unidentified drone spotted, and a drone research contract at a UAS test site.

UAV News

US Special Ops Command Awards $1B Counter-Drone Contract

Anduril Industries has won a 10-year, $1 billion counter-UAS integration contract. Awarded by US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Anduril is to “deliver, advance, and sustain” counter-UAS sensors and systems in a layered configuration. Anduril’s cUAS Lattice system includes a solar-powered Sentry Tower with sensors and the Anvil sUAS, all running on the Lattice operating system. The system “autonomously detects, classifies, and tracks targets, alerting operators to threats and allowing options for mitigation or engagement.”

A Larry Page-backed drone guru expects you to be a future passenger. Here’s why

Larry Page funded Kittyhawk and picked up a portion of 3D Robotics, co-founded by Chris Anderson, now the Kittyhawk COO. Kittyhawk pivoted from air mobility with a pilot to pilotless.

I am a drone guy, and this was the perfect, obvious next chapter, just bigger drones and the use case is so much more obvious, moving people from A to B more quickly and as cheaply as a car is the kind of mission I can get behind. On the tech side, there is no reason we can’t move a significant fraction of people off the roads and into the sky.

Chris Anderson

Premier League clash between Brentford and Wolves halted for 19 minutes due to a DRONE hovering over the west London stadium

Play of the English Premier League was halted due to an “unofficial drone” flying over the field. Both teams returned to the dressing rooms while a helicopter was used to try and shoo the drone away.

UAE bans flying of recreational drones after fatal attack

Recreational drones and light sport aircraft have been banned in the United Arab Emirates. This follows a fatal drone attack on an oil facility and a major airport. Also, some people were flying drones outside the area of their permits, often into areas where drones are prohibited. The penalty for violating the ban is heavy: Six months in jail and Dh100,000 fine for flying drones in the UAE, prosecutors says.

The “Healing Eagle Feather” project is a partnership between MissionGo and the Navajo Nation to deliver medical supplies and other essentials with drones to people in remote areas. Cargo includes insulin kits, prepackaged meals, large animal medicine, emergency communication devices, and anti-venom. In Episode 375 we talked with MissionGO’s Frank Paskiewicz, EVP of Cargo Operations, and Ryan Henderson, Lead Pilot.

Drones for Animal Rescue: Doug Thron Flies Around the World, Saving Pets and Wildlife After Natural Disasters

Douglas Thron is a photographer and drone pilot who travels to natural disasters and conducts animal rescues. He uses a Matrice 210 V2 drone with a FLIR XT2 camera and has found and rescued distressed animals around the world. The HBO Max TV show “Doug to the Rescue” chronicles the rescues.

Volcano-observing Drone Flights Open Door to Routine Hazard Monitoring

Under a long-term collaboration between NASA and Black Swift Technologies, the S2 UAS flew over the Makushin Volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The U.S. Geological Survey provided a payload that detects gases and collects visual and thermal images. The S2 fixed-wing drone is designed to carry scientific payloads in demanding atmospheric conditions.

Pilot Video And FAA Interview Reveal Bizarre Encounter With Unidentified Aircraft Over Atlantic City

An Air Force pilot flying a Diamond DA40 observed a strange drone above Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 16th, 2018. The KC-135 aerial refueling tanker pilot said the drone followed his aircraft.

Video: Unidentified Aircraft Encounter Over Atlantic City 9/16/18 Air-To-Air Video

FAA awards contracts for drone research at Grand Sky

More than $2 million was awarded to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. and Appareo Systems LLC. GA-ASI will focus on detect-and-avoid technology while Appareo will examine how radio signals function at different altitudes and in different environments. They’ll also conduct research to evaluate the use of LTE cellular networks for unmanned aircraft. The companies will work in conjunction with the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, near Grand Forks Air Force Base.

UAV Video of the Week

Video: MONSTER WAIMEA BAY (part one) Heavy Carnage

Video: MONSTER WAIMEA BAY (part two) Taming The Beast

375 MissionGO

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We talk with MissionGO about the unique challenges of human organ delivery with UAS and the benefits to the medical community. MissionGo is developing their own aircraft that is specialized to the requirements of this medical cargo, and their team includes a diverse group of individuals with hardware, software, and even regulatory experience.

Guests

Frank Paskiewicz is Executive Vice President of Cargo Operations at MissionGO. He leads aircraft certification and manufacturing, FAA regulatory consulting services, UAS integration strategies, and air cargo operations. This includes running MissionGO’s cargo operations and supporting UAS client FAA certification programs. Frank also leads the development of products and services for MissionGO’s air cargo operations, including research studies, airspace analysis, and flight activities.

Ryan Henderson is Lead Pilot at MissionGo. His responsibilities include overseeing all flight operations, managing pilot and crew currency and qualifications, managing all SOP’s/Instructions, directing all Operation Readiness Reviews, curriculum creation and facilitation, and maintaining all UAS records. Ryan is an airspace analysis expert and has been called upon multiple times for Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COA) and Part 107 Waivers.

Correction: Dr. Joseph R. Scalea, MD is a Multi-Organ Transplant Surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. In this episode, the doctor was inadvertently associated with Hopkins.

346 The Longest Organ Delivery Flight by UAS

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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.