Researchers from the University of California San Diego have created robotic gliders that literally fly like an eagle. They use reinforcement learning to determine how to exploit updrafts of warm air, soaring to altitudes of up to 2,300 ft.
Continue Reading
Air mobility company SkyRyse has developed an assisted-flight technology for first-responders that will be used to speed up air emergency systems in the town of Tracy, California beginning in January of next year.
Continue Reading
With a contract of US$805 million, Boeing has been tapped to build the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueling tanker for the US Navy to extend the range of its fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and F-35C Lightning II operating at sea.
Continue Reading
Automated in-flight refueling has come to large aircraft after Airbus Defence and Space and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) conducted the first Automatic Air-to-Air (A3R) refueling between an Airbus 310 development tanker and a RAAF KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport off the coast of Spain.
Continue Reading
When we last heard about the Cormorant UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), it had made its first untethered autonomous flight. Now, the VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft has performed a small-scale mission for prospective buyers.
Continue Reading
An Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS)-enabled UH-1H helicopter has autonomously delivered 520 lb (236 kg) of water, gasoline, MREs, communications gear, and a cooler capable of carrying urgent supplies such as blood to US Marines in the field.
Continue Reading
MIT engineers have built a hybrid robotic glider that enjoys the best of both the aerial and on-water worlds. Their Albatross glider soars like a bird and skims the water like a sail craft, yet requires less wind than an albatross needs to stay aloft, and can travel 10 times faster than a sailboat.
Continue Reading
If you own a consumer drone, chances are you crashed the thing a lot when learning to fly it. Well, the same thing happens when the pros are teaching drones to fly autonomously. Those wipe-outs could become a lot less common, however, thanks to the Flight Goggles virtual reality system.
Continue Reading
AirSpaceX has given a preview of its vision for the future of air taxi services at this year's NAIAS in Detroit. The company unveiled a sub-scale model of Mobi-One, an autonomous, tilt-wing, electric, VTOL aircraft designed to carry both passengers and cargo at speeds of up to 250 mph (400 km/h).
Continue Reading
You may like your little consumer quadcopter, but Boeing has just unveiled something with a tad more … heft. Referred to as an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) cargo air vehicle (CAV), the unmanned prototype aircraft is designed to carry a payload of up to 500 lb (227 kg).
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning