Firefighters tackled a blaze which broke out at UAV Engines Ltd in Shenstone, near Birmingahm in England, on Monday. Two crews from Lichfield and one from Aldridge in the West Midlands attended the incident on Lynn Lane. Continue reading
Category Archives: Aircraft Propulsion & Energy
Automated UAS Battery Changer – Lego Prototype from Valhalla
Danish company, Valhalla Drone Solutions, a group of seven engineers from the University of Southern Denmark in Odense has developed a prototype Lego Mindstorms robot that automatically switches a quadrotor’s battery pack.
DARPA Wants XS-1 Unmanned Hypersonic Space Plane to Deploy Satellites
U.S. military researchers are asking industry to begin work on developing a reusable hypersonic unmanned spacecraft able to carry and deploy 3,000-to-5,000-pound satellites to low-Earth orbit (LEO) for less than $5 million per launch. Continue reading
Arotech Develops Special Battery Chargers for UAS
Arotech Corporation, a provider of defence and security products for the military, law enforcement, and homeland security markets, announced that its Battery and Power Systems Division recently received orders to develop special chargers for batteries which power unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAS). The orders totaled in excess of $700,000. Continue reading
Speed is the New Stealth – Lockheed Martin Skunkworks to Develop Mach 6 Hypersonic Fighter
In 1976, US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird crews flew from New York to London in less than two hours, reaching speeds exceeding Mach 3 and setting world records that have held up for nearly four decades. Today, at the birthplace of the Blackbird – Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works – engineers are developing a hypersonic aircraft that will go twice the speed of the SR-71. It’s called the SR-72. Continue reading
Lycoming Engines Overhauls Heavy-Fuel Powerplants in AAI’s Aerosonde
Lycoming Engines has begun overhauling the heavy-fuel powerplants in AAI’s Aerosonde Mk 4.7 unmanned aircraft systems, and will make design changes intended to improve the engines’ reliability, say executives. Continue reading
Solar Powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite Successful Test Flight
Astrium has successfully completed the first flight of its long endurance Zephyr solar powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) since it acquired the assets of the Zephyr programme in March 2013 from QinetiQ in the UK. Continue reading
Rolls-Royce to Develop New Services Facility for Global Hawk Engines
Rolls-Royce will open a new engine depot services facility at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma to support the US Air Force Global Hawk fleet. The company has been awarded a $49 million contract to establish the new facility, which is expected to begin operations in 2015. Continue reading