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Unmanned
Metal Storm’s virtual minefield gets a patent
By Gizmag Team
23:12 January 26, 2010 PST
Metal Storm has been granted another round of patents and one in particular has important implications for the future of minefields. The company’s weapon technology functions somewhat like an inkjet printer, using computer-controlled electronic ignition and a system of stacked projectiles in multiple barrels. As each barrel can contain a variety of projectiles, it can fire a sensor from each of the barrels to cover an area with sensors. If any sensor is triggered, the barrel to which it belongs fires a subsequent explosive projectile to the exact same point. The system offers many advantages, including the ability to be switched off leaving no explosive ordnance remaining in the area that had been protected. With landmines being one of the most dreadful and enduring legacies of war, it’s an enormous shame that only one side will be using Metal Storm, as it represents a potential solution to the deployment of this insidious device. Read More
VTOL Flying-Wing: a new take on UAV design
By Gizmag Team
20:26 January 24, 2010 PST
The age of unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs has well and truly dawned but designers aren't resting on their laurels when it comes to improving the capabilities of these multi-talented aircraft. One innovation that's come to the fore recently is the use of an enclosed four rotor platform (see our recent look at the CyberQuad) which offers a number of advantages including greater stability, agility, hovering ability and a smaller footprint. This unique new design from Britain's VTOL Technologies takes this idea a step further, adding four movable rotors to a single "flying-wing" to create an aircraft that claims to deliver a higher payload capacity for its size and up to four times the endurance of current vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV designs. Read More
Next-gen Global Hawk HALE UAS completes its first flight
By Darren Quick
18:37 December 10, 2009 PST
The first of the next generation of Northrop Grumman’s Block 40 configuration RQ-4 Global Hawk has successfully completed its first flight. The two hour flight took the aircraft from Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility in Palmdale, California to Edwards Air Force Base, California. Designated AF-18, the Block 40 configuration of the high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) will carry the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) active electronically scanned array radar that will help warfighters detect, track and identify stationary and moving targets. Read More
Ion Tiger sets endurance record for a hydrogen fuel cell powered UAV
By Darren Quick
23:42 November 30, 2009 PST
The benefits of using hydrogen fuel cells to power UAVs have been shown by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with its Ion Tiger UAV setting an unofficial flight endurance record of 26 hours and 1 minute while carrying a 5-pound payload. While taking advantage of hydrogen as a high-energy fuel, the electric fuel cell propulsion system onboard the Ion Tiger also boasts the low noise and signature of a battery-powered UAV. Read More
Retrofit kit allows cars to drive themselves
By Alan Brandon
18:32 November 23, 2009 PST
Let’s say you want to go for a ride in your car, but you don’t feel like driving it. Or perhaps you want to drive your car, but you don’t want to go for a ride in it. These two seemingly contradictory scenarios are probably not what Kairos Autonomi had in mind when it developed the Pronto4 Agnostic Autonomy System. The Pronto4 is a drive-by-wire system that when installed in a vehicle, provides self-driving capability as well as remote control. The system is “agnostic” because it is a retrofit kit that the manufacturer claims can be installed in any steering-wheel based vehicle. Read More
Mantis takes flight - the UK’s largest ever fully-autonomous UAV
By Darren Quick
21:42 November 17, 2009 PST
The largest fully-autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ever to be built in the UK has completed initial flight trials in Woomera, South Australia. Built by BAE Systems for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) the Mantis is the company’s first genuine fly-by-wire, all-electric aircraft and is designed to execute its mission with a much-reduced need for human intervention by understanding and reacting to its environment. BAE said Mantis successfully completed a series of trials demonstrating its capabilities and the potential for large unmanned systems to carry out intelligence-gathering at long distances. Read More
Spiraling maple tree seeds inspire world's smallest single-winged rotocraft
By Jeff Salton
18:08 October 21, 2009 PDT
Students at the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering have turned to nature to create a flying device that can hover and perform surveillance duties, and that could lead to applications for military and emergency services. The enigmatic maple tree seeds (or samara fruit) - and the unique spiraling pattern with which they glide to the ground - have intrigued children and engineers for decades. Now aerospace engineering graduate students have applied the seeds’ design to airborne devices and created what they believe to be the world's smallest controllable single-winged rotocraft. Read More
New class of UAVs look more like UFOs
By Darren Quick
21:41 September 14, 2009 PDT
Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) employ a fixed wing design much like that of a traditional plane. But these designs offer limited maneuverability and payload capacity, require a runway to takeoff and land, and are unable to hover. Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs get around these problems, usually by employing rotors like a helicopter. Now UK-based company AESIR has developed a VTOL UAV that has no external rotating parts, instead relying on a phenomenon known as the Coanda effect to generate lift. Read More
Flying-cam goes electric
By Darren Quick
05:09 September 14, 2009 PDT
We write a lot about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in military use but, as is so often the case with technology developed for the military, this kind of equipment is increasingly finding its way into civilian applications. The latest example to catch our eye is the Flying-Cam III E Special Aerial Response Autonomous Helicopter (SARAH) – a fully electric quasi-UAV camera platform for getting those majestic soaring shots for film and television shoots. Read More
Video games finally pay off: Air Force needs more virtual flyers than real pilots
02:39 August 14, 2009 PDT
There was once a great Far Side cartoon that had ‘hopeful parents’ imagining a newspaper full of Help Wanted ads for skilled video game players. Well, it looks like Gary Larson might have been more prescient than he imagined. The US Air Force has just revealed that, this year, it will train more ‘pilots’ to remotely operate unmanned aircraft than pilots to fly fighters and bombers. Read More
Boeing to market S-100 Camcopter
By Jeff Salton
18:06 August 12, 2009 PDT
Expect to see more S-100 Camcopters taking to the skies following the announcement that Boeing and Austrian company Schiebel Industries (the S-100’s manufacturer) have joined forces to market and support the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The S-100 is an remote-controlled helicopter that can carry a wide variety of payloads, including a stabilized video system for surveillance and reconnaissance, and is well-suited to military and civilian applications. Read More
Mr Stiffy
- February 9, 2010 @ 06:26 UTC
