Orbital has announced that it has been awarded a contract for the development of a production engine for a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS). This United States customer has provided 24/7/365 operations for customers worldwide and has been delivering Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for both land and maritime missions. Continue reading
Category Archives: Aircraft Propulsion & Energy
UAS Variable-Pitch Propeller Ready for Flight Testing
After years of research, Thunder Bay’s Aerovate Inc. will flight-test its variable-pitch UAS propeller system this summer, with the goal of bringing the technology to market this fall. Continue reading
Solar Technology Improves UAS Flight Duration
During a keynote at the small unmanned systems business expo in San Francisco, California, on July 25th., Alta Devices’ CEO Christopher Norris explained that small unmanned aircraft Systems (UAS) are no longer constrained to short-range or limited flight times and are now able to fly as long as the sun is shining. Continue reading
Pratt & Whitney Powers X-47B Carrier Launch
Pratt & Whitney’s F100-PW-220U engine and exhaust system recently powered the first ever carrier-based catapult launch, touch and go, and arrested landing of Northrop Grumman’s X-47B flight test aircraft for the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme. Continue reading
Hybrid Electric Planes Development Progresses
Last month Siemens and EADS demonstrated a new gas-electric vehicle capable of carrying two people and their luggage 900 kilometers—roughly the distance from New York to Detroit—between refuels and recharges. The prototype was not a car, but a small two-seater airplane. Continue reading
UAV Factory Announces Electric Version of Penguin B Platform
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UAV Factory has announced the launch of an electric version of the Penguin unmanned aircraft – the Penguin BE. Continue reading
New All-Solid Sulphur-Based Battery Outperforms Lithium-ion Technology
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulphur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today’s electronics. Continue reading
Solar-Powered OctoCopter
Ecilop Solar (Ecilop-8) is controlled as a quad-copter, 8 rotors are connected pair-wise. There is no onboard battery. To configure controllers inside a building, the user connects an external battery. To restart the controller in sunlight, the user bridges the power leads. The vehicle remains airborne because of ground effect and automatically maintains a horizontal attitude. Continue reading