Hundreds of police officers at one of the country's busiest airports say in the case of an active shooter, they are instructed to run and hide. That's because these officers are unique among the nation's major airports: They don't carry guns. Their badges, uniforms and vehicles all say "police." And they are certified police officers in the state of Illinois. But...
Russia’s emergencies ministry on Sunday opened an unmanned aviation center at the ministry’s Moscow region department. The ceremony was attended by Minister Vladimir Puchkov. "The unmanned aviation center will help improve the quality of monitoring and raise the level of crisis response," he said. The minister said drones would be used for aerial surveying to establish pre...
Northrop Grumman Corp has won a contract worth $93.08 million to build a full-scale demonstrator of a new unmanned spy plane - a flying wing with large counter-rotating propellers - that would take off and land on destroyers and frigates, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Northrop has been working on a design for the new drone for several years under a joint program called Tern that is led by...
Drones are tipped to be one of the most popular presents this Christmas but fledgling pilots have been delivered a stern warning about the potential dangers for new flyers. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is urging people to stick to a handful of basic rules in the wake of a high-profile incident where a pro-skier narrowly avoided having a drone fall out of the sky on his head. Pe...
Russia’s State Duma lower parliament house on Tuesday passed a law on the establishment of a legal framework for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia. In particular, the document binds to register all drones but for those weighing less than 250 grams. This liability will be applicable to toy helicopters and quadcopters, however a simplified registration procedures will be provide...
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published yesterday a Technical Opinion on the safe use of drones in Europe’s civil airspace. The EASA Technical Opinion sets the direction to be followed for all future work to be done to ensure unmanned aircraft are operated safely and interact safely with other airspace users. The aim is to provide a framework that is proportionate to the activit...
This is an Amazon Prime Air delivery vehicle, it has a range of fifteen miles: (Photo Credits: Amazon) But, because it has Jeremy Clarkson as its spokesman, I don’t care. I use Amazon all the time. After all, I lead an esoteric life of hermitage, I hate brick and mortar stores, I order incredibly hard-to-find books on Russian aviation and local traffic terrifies me. ...
Lufthansa has flight-tested an unmanned air vehicle at Frankfurt airport as the airline plans to employ the technology for aerial surveillance purposes for third-party customers. Together with airport operator Fraport and German air navigation service provider DFS, Lufthansa has tested a remote-controlled, camera-equipped UAV around runway 07L/25R, northwest of the...
France has ordered the third General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper unmanned air system to bolster its growing fleet of the type, which is operating in the Sahel-Saharan strip in Africa. Ordered through the USA’s Foreign Military Sales programme, the third system – consisting of three aircraft – will be delivered in 2019, following the transfer of the second system d...
Northrop Grumman has scheduled flight tests of three new payloads for the RQ-4B Global Hawk fleet next year. The tests are made possible by the development of a universal payload adaptor jointly funded by Northrop and the US Air Force. In its original form, the RQ-4B lacked the payload attach points to fit two sensors carried by the Lockheed Martin U-2S, the reconnaissance aircraft the Globa...
Progress toward an all-European medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAS remains very slow, despite last week’s announcement that Germany would take the lead in the unmanned aircraft program and that Spain had joined. France and Italy are the other two nations that have agreed to fund a project definition (PD) study by an industrial partnership among Airbus Defence and Space; Dassault Aviat...
India is getting set to launch an ambitious project to develop its own stealth combat drones or UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles), which will be capable of firing missiles and precision-guided munitions at enemy targets and then returning to home bases to re-arm for further missions. Sources said the government was close to approving a Rs 2,650 crore Project Ghatak to develop the futurist...