Drone enthusiasts are being urged to practice their hobby only in accredited clubs for safety and security reasons. The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said that "light air sports" enthusiasts must only operate their drones in clubs that have been approved by the authority, according to the state news agency Wam. The announcement is part of a new campaign organised by...
Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. But, while the rise in trade is boosting airfreight, infrastructural problems remain. Studies show that drones will be able to cater for 10 to 20% of regional cargo transportation in the future. Vincent Chappard reports. Data released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for global airfreight markets show a very modes...
Transport Canada is preparing to introduce new guidelines for the operation of unmanned air vehicles similar to those being proposed in Europe. The new regulations were first introduced in May 2015, and are considered to be more risk-based than those currently used, which only distinguish between the commercial or recreational operation of small UAVs. A consultation between May and August ga...
The first public flight of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron TP unmanned air vehicle (UAV) happened almost nine years years ago. The maiden flight of the Elbit Systems Hermes 900 occurred nearly seven years ago. Yet, since 2009, neither of Israel’s largest UAV makers have released a new design for a large clean-sheet UAV on the export market, appearing to end a two decade stre...
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Korean composite manufacturer Hankuk Carbon will form a joint venture to new vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicles. Under the terms of the memorandum of agreement, the JV will see the companies develop, manufacture, and sell VTOL UAVs, starting with a system with a 200-300kg maximum take-off weight. It will be developed according to...
New risk-mitigating unmanned air vehicle regulations proposed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will only serve to create a “grey area" in which users of smaller systems can carry out unregulated aerial work, an industry expert claims. The most recent iteration of EASA’s revised UAV regulations – a technical opinion released on 18 December – offers what...
Lufthansa Aerial Services, a division of Lufthansa Consulting, today signed a deal with DJI to use the world’s leading drone-maker’s aerial platforms to develop commercial applications for its key customers. Using DJI’s drones and open onboard systems, Lufthansa will integrate hardware and software, manage operation of the technology and facilitate data analysis. The tw...
The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) has developed a computer-controlled drone that can land automatically, even on a moving target. In a video posted by the DLR on YouTube, an unmanned aerial vehicle tracks a specially-kitted out Audi with a net on top to catch it. With a barcode like the one you would find on a magazine - along with other trackers on top of the car - the drone tracked t...
The Air Force has a huge drone problem that's costing the military division a pretty penny. A total of 20 drones were completely destroyed or sustained at least $2 million in damages when they crashed in 2015, according to The Washington Post. That's the highest number of mishaps within a year so far, over twice the number of accidents in 2014. Half of those incidents involve the military&...
France appears to have selected Sagem's Patroller for its army’s tactical unmanned air vehicle requirement, defeating the rival Thales Watchkeeper system. If the deal goes ahead, Paris will be the first customer for the Patroller, under a reported €300 million ($324 million) contract, according to French news outlet Air & Cosmos. In June, Boulogne-Billancourt, France-...
“They are my babies,” says Desiree Ekstein of her high-flying brood. “They all have names.” Ekstein, a Lake Elsinore resident, is known to her friends as Drone Diva Desi. She owns a dozen of the unmanned flying marvels, flocks of which touched down in holiday stockings across the nation last month. But Ekstein, 52, said she didn’t get a new drone for Christma...
He calls himself the “Drone Slayer.” And William Merideth, who shot down a drone over his Hillview home last summer, says he’d “do it again, with a smile.” Dismissing criminal charges against him for firing a gun within city limits, a judge said Merideth was within his rights when he took out the $1,800 unmanned aircraft, which Merideth said he feared was peeping o...
