Category Archives: Research

Airlander to Develop Electric Propulsion Technologies

A partnership of Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), Collins Aerospace, and the University of Nottingham (UoN) has won grant funding in excess of £1m from the UK Aerospace Research and Technology Programme to develop electric propulsion technologies using Airlander 10 as the initial platform. The project, named E-HAV1, will deliver a full-sized prototype 500kW electric propulsor for ground testing and technologies ready for future productionisation. Continue reading

Black Swift S2 to Study East Greenland Ice-Core

Black Swift Technologies(BST), a specialized engineering firm based in Boulder, CO, announced that its advanced aerial research platform, the Black Swift S2 UAS, will be deployed in the coming months by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR),part of the University of Colorado Boulder, to conduct high-altitude high-latitude atmospheric research studies in Greenland.  This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is part of the larger international East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP) Continue reading

Microsoft TechSpark Invests in UND Drone StartUp

L-R: Brandon Baumbach, EDC business development manager, Keith Lund, EDC president and CEO, Joshua Riedy, and TechSpark North Dakota manager Taya Spelhaug

Microsoft Corp. and the University of North Dakota (UND) Aerospace Foundation have announced that Microsoft has granted $100,000 in project funding that will drive investment and boost North Dakota’s ambitions to be the epicenter of U.S. drone innovation and entrepreneurism. Continue reading

Thermal-Equipped Drones Detect Disease in Cows

This thermal image shows the cattle below in the feedlot in Bushland, Texas, just west of Amarillo

At a research feedlot just west of the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo, researchers are in the early stages of exploring how heat signatures from cattle might correlate with other data to speed detection of stress or disease. The idea stemmed from thermography used in veterinary practices diagnosing lameness in horses. Continue reading