Governmental use of unmanned surveillance aircraft has inspired a lot of concern about privacy, but Bogota City Mayor Gustavo Petro thinks the battle is already over. In a TV interview days ago, Petro said essentially that UAS are an inevitable part of our future, comparing them to the thousands of cameras already located around Bogota. Continue reading
Category Archives: SPR
Team Registration Open for NASA-DPI Unmanned Aircraft Systems Airspace Operations Challenge
NASA and Development Projects Inc. (DPI) of Dayton, Ohio, have opened registration for the 2014 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Airspace Operations Challenge. The $500,000 prize competition is scheduled for April 2014 in Indiana. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman Gets $8M US Air Force Contract for Global Hawk Spares
Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation was awarded a $7,902,648 delivery order (0001) to firm-fixed-price contract (F8620-13-G-0001) for Global Hawk spares. The contract award is for ground segment communications spares. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman Readies MQ-8C Fire Scout for Flight Operations
Northrop Grumman Corporation turned on the power to the U.S. Navy’s first MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter and rotated the aircraft’s four blades for the first time during initial ground testing and engine runs at Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu, California, on Sept. 20. Continue reading
NASA Dryden Uses Schlieren Photography System to Study Supersonic Shockwaves
Researchers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center recently captured imagery of supersonic shockwaves streaming from two research aircraft using a newly developed high-tech schlieren imaging system. Continue reading
UK Hermes 450 Reaches 70,000 Flight Hours in Afghanistan
A British Army Hermes 450 at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan
The British Army’s Hermes 450 (H-450) unmanned air systems have completed over 70,000 hours of surveillance support in Afghanistan.This is the equivalent of 8 years of non-stop flying. Continue reading
US Navy X-47B Completes 100th Flight
The X-47B (AV-2) conducted the 100th flight for the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme at Patuxent River on Sept. 18. The Navy UCAS programme successfully completed all objectives for the carrier demonstration phase with the X-47B in July. Continue reading
US Navy Expands Surveillance Mission for Northrop Grumman BAMS-D
The US Navy will increase by 50 percent the monthly surveillance flights of a Northrop Grumman Corporation-built maritime unmanned demonstrator under a contract awarded September 6. The contract will allow Navy commanders to keep closer tabs on activities in the ocean and coastal regions of the Middle East. Continue reading