FAA

Public safety is central to Amazon's drone delivery plans, and a new patent shows the company is thinking outside the square in this regard. It is considering drones that can break apart in midair, to spread the loads of metal and plastic raining down if something goes wrong.​​

A study issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has sought to bring some figures into the discussion around the dangers of drones, finding, among other things, the chances of a head injury from a falling drone to be 0.03 percent.

It's not drone technology that's stopping you from being able to get a burger or a book flown into your back yard by drone – it's aviation law. But this extraordinary piece of technology might just give UAVs the sense-and-avoid ability they need to satisfy the FAA and open up the skies.

As part of its effort to stop drones flying too close to airports, the US government is trialing a defense system that scans the area for unmanned aircraft before using radio beams to stop them in their tracks.​​

Looking to avert gridlock at altitude, NASA has been working on an air traffic management system for drones, and today is carrying out its first coordinated testing to see just how well it can accomodate flights at different locations across the country.

In the rural area of Wise County, Virginia, Startup Flirtey has teamed up with NASA to conduct the first government approved exercise to deliver medical supplies by drone.

Earlier this year we saw the first example of a 3D-printed jet engine, now GE has announced the first 3D-printed part certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a commercial jet engine. and will be retrofitted to over 400 GE90-94B jet engines on Boeing 777 aircraft.

Last month, Amazon was given permission to test a delivery drone prototype in the US, but there was a hitch – the vehicle cleared for use had already become obsolete. Now the agency has granted Amazon a green light to put its current models to the test.

Amazon has taken its Prime Air operations north of the US border to develop its delivery drones with greater regulatory freedom. A report in The Guardian on Monday revealed that the company has been testing its drones for the last few months at a top secret site in British Columbia, Canada.

Even before it received FAA type certification, Cessna's Citation X+ had claimed the title of the world's fastest civilian aircraft. After receiving certification in June, the aircraft has continued its record-setting ways with a number of US city-to-city speed records.

General Atomics Aeronautical System, Inc. (GA-ASI), the maker of the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) successfully completed the first of several flight tests of a prototype Sense and Avoid (SAA) system, that allows a UAV to see and avoid other aircraft in flight.

On its way to certification, Cessna's Citation X recently wound up all high-speed certification flights with the FAA, which confirmed the aircraft as the fastest civilian aircraft in the world.