The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has announced it has ordered a third, record-breaking, Zephyr-S Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), as part of a £13-million contract with Airbus Defence and Space (ADS).
Category Archives: Aircraft Propulsion & Energy
Volz DA 15-T Throttle Servo Selected for Orbital/Insitu N20 ScanEagle Engine
Volz Servos GmbH & Co. KG was selected by Orbital to supply our DA 15-T throttle servo for the new Orbital/Insitu N20 engine for ScanEagle. The Volz DA 15-T throttle servo utilizes a brushless motor and contactless position sensor for demanding “on-engine” throttle actuator installations.
Facebook’s Solar-Powered Aquila Completes First Flight
Connectivity Lab announced the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, facebook’s high-altitude unmanned aircraft. Aquila is a solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. Continue reading
Russia Tested Hydrogen-Powered UAV in Syria
During the operation in Syria, the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (VKO) has tested hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a top-ranking representative of the military-industrial complex. According to him, air drones equipped with hydrogen engines showed very good results during the test flights.
3W-Powered UAV for Flights in Antarctica
At the end of February 2016, mechatronics lead Kevin Bass of Intuitive Machines and contracted pilot Mike Laible set off on a planned excursion to Antarctica. In cooperation with the UTIG (University of Texas Institute for Geophysics) and ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate) Intuitive Machines successfully flew multiple runs with a 3W-powered unmanned aerial vehicle platform, Tiburon Jr., on the coast of Antarctica.
Solar Impulse Completes Atlantic Crossing
Solar Impulse 2 has arrived in Europe after 71 hours and 8 minutes of flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Bertrand Piccard has safely landed in Seville, Spain after spending 71 hours and 8 minutes flying across the Atlantic Ocean in a solar airplane, welcomed there by André Borschberg. Continue reading
Inverted Wankel Engine as UAS Power Plant ?
Alexander Shkolnick is the president and co-founder of LiquidPiston, a Connecticut firm that has spent 13 years and $18 million rethinking the rotary engine that Felix Wankel created in 1960 and Mazda gave up on in 2012. On Monday, engineers yanked the 39-pound conventional engine out of a kart and installed the four-pound X Mini. Continue reading
US Army Readies Shadow Block 3 Engine Competition
The US Army plans to release a solicitation for a Block III engine for its Textron Systems RQ-7B Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft system (UAS) later this year, according to the army’s product manager for the platform.