sUAS News

Staff and students at Cranfield University have unearthed some amazing facts and footage while researching a heritage exhibition to mark 70 years since its formation as the College of Aeronautics in 1946. One piece of film shows Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, visiting Cranfield when he was awarded an honorary […]

Phase One Industrial has today introduced the Phase One 4-Band Solution. The solution incorporates an innovative batch-processing tool that automates and thus simplifies the four band aerial image generation process. Adding a fourth band of near infrared (NIR) image data to three-band colour (RGB) image data yields multispectral information that is very useful in vegetation studies […]

London, 5 September 2016: The Met Office has launched an enhanced and upgraded version of its OpenRunway® product to help airports and airlines operate as safely and efficiently as possible with the most accurate forecast information. New features include a mobile and tablet friendly interface, improved mapping and weather layer information and 24 hour forecast […]

Aerovision Unmanned Aerial Solutions (Pty) Ltd, a Cape Town based aerial surveying and remote sensing service provider are pleased to announce the launch of their fixed wing mapping platform, the ALTiMapper AV-01. Based on a well proven wing-type airframe, the ALTiMapper AV-01 is an extremely durable, affordable and easy to use UAV mapping platform that […]

Altus is proud to announce their partnership with Taiwan based specialist manufacturer InnoFlight. Joint development projects are highlighted by the commercial version of the Cerberus-R triple redundant autopilot system. Altus’ requirements for a robust and reliable flight control system for their commercial applications have seen them move on from their previous dual redundancy system to […]

The three systems of unmanned helicopters meant for the Chinese Customs, and ordered by Jolly have been delivered from Linköping today. It has been further agreed that CybAero will send a flight team to China to train the end-customer’s staff and to be on-site for the implementation of the final part of the FAT (Factory […]

Coeur d’Alene, ID, September, 2016 – xCraft launches into the commercial UAV market with their new x2 Drone. The x2 is a transitional VTOL with new proprietary software that allows start ­to ­finish autonomous missions. This functionality fills a hole in a rapidly growing industry. The x2 takes off and lands vertically and transitions to […]

UgCS just released a new version of their ground control software for drones – UgCS 2.9 Update 1. UgCS currently supports most DJI drones, Pixhawk and many others. It allows creating complex automated routes for drones with ease and can be used for both – professional and hobby purposes. Along with changes in UgCS desktop […]

According to AOPA, over 2,400 applications have been completed in IACRA for remote pilot certificates since Monday when Part 107 rules took effect. Further to that 16,000 people have completed the FAA’s Part 107 small UAS online course. If you are looking for Part 107 information AOPA has done a great job of laying it […]

Zephyr is a result of a long and intense development effort, and we are excited to finally make it available to the sUAS community after integrating functions and capabilities suggested by more than 50 enterprise customers and drone professionals who participated in Zephyr beta trials,” said Kyle Bishop, CEO of Little Arms Studios. “As proven […]

SYPAQ, a leading Australian Systems Integrator, today officially launched its Australian designed and manufactured range of products for the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance community. Released under SYPAQ’s registered Corvo brand, the initial range includes its flagship Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), the Corvo H6M, as well as the modular Corvo P1 and P2 Video Processing systems, […]

MetaVR announces that starting this fall, Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) Utica, NY, campus will use MetaVR visuals and donated small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in its new UAS simulation and training lab. Earlier this year, MVCC purchased 6 MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG) licenses and 6 Battlespace Simulations’ Modern Air Combat Environment (MACE) […]

Well it had to happen to make the Christmas rush. Multirotors are being released left right and centre. The Yuneec Breeze being my current favourite. GoPro has just posted this new teaser video. I suspect on launch GoPro’s website will see a great deal of traffic. Change is in the air. 9.19.16 at gopro.com. Shot […]

Parrot has made a new eBee to carry the Sequoia. At $10990 USD quite an investment. It is made for farmers and announced right after Part 107 which makes it more straightforward to operate commercially. It uses the same pitot/light stalk as the Disco. Perhaps CHUCK is inside as well. The eBee SQ is an advanced […]

A former crowd-funder has come back. This time with folding arms. I will say I have a soft spot for tri copters. They have a more floaty feel than and are easier to orientate. All in all a much nicer flying experience. They are also saving power by having one less motor. Their weakness though […]

The first meeting is on the 16th of September. Intel CEO and pilot Brian Krzanich will serve as its chairman. Speaking earlier this year, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. “Innovation in unmanned aircraft systems is moving at the speed of Silicon Valley. So it only makes sense that we asked a Silicon Valley leader to help us […]

EPIC Creative, a full service advertising, communications and video production agency located in West Bend, Wis., is proud to announce it obtained a Section 333 exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones. The Section 333 exemption permits the company to commercially operate […]

Unmanned Services Inc. has become the first commercial drone operations company in the state of Kentucky that is allowed to provide nighttime flights. The Lexington­based unmanned aerial services company was one of the first in the country toreceive the FAA waiver for nighttime operations for small unmanned aircraft systems. By being able to operate at […]

In 2016 UAV Ground School launched as the country’s first dedicated FAA Part 107 UAV Ground School program (www.uavgroundschool.com/uav-pilot-courses). Official testing for the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot certification began this past Monday 08/29 and the FAA reported that over 1,500 individuals took the FAA certification test on the first day. In recent months UAV […]

Well done to Jonathan, his client Red Raptor has been granted a Part 107 night waiver from the FAA to operate nationwide in Class G airspace. Waivers issued on Monday, the day came into force were previously applied for by 333 operators and members of the FAA Pathfinder program. It is not yet known how long it […]

In Valour Consultancy’s recently published study, “The Future of Commercial and Industrial UAVs”, sales of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used for commercial and enterprise purposes will be worth $3.4 billion by the end of 2016. The popular hobbyist market is become a “must-have” tool for a number of business use cases or service provider solutions, […]

The world is going nuts because it is an X-wing. I want to see the transition. In order for that to happen, I have a feeling my middle son needs one for Christmas! Parrot have introduced a VTOL wing into their mini lineup. What is very cool for hackers is that it runs Linux and […]

Revenues tumble 23% declines in unmanned aircraft systems sales, and efficient energy systems. Net loss widened to $11.6M from a year-ago loss of $7M. Does AeroVirnonment have an answer for the new drone age? As the sun rises on a brave new commercial drone world in the USA one of the incumbents is struggling. AeroVironment […]

I have a feeling at least one of the now numerous reported near misses (yes I know near hits) must be for real. I cannot imagine for one moment gentle sUAS News reader that you would fly so irresponsibly. This one, in particular, does sound like a flying wing. AIRPROX REPORT No 2016095 THE A319 […]

Airobotics, manufacturing the world’s first fully automatic drone system, announces that it has received a Certificate of Waiver to operate its automatic drone system commercially and at night, in accordance with the rules of Part 107 to the Federal Aviation Regulations on August 29th, 2016. With this announcement, Airobotics has been established as a safe […]

A long time ago we published The SFAR Part 107 Shades of Things to Come… at that time many of the current experts and advocates had no idea what the heck a drone was. Even the visionaries that owned drone companies said we would never be regulated (and investment in advocacy was not needed), while […]

NVdrones, a start-up that provides cloud-based software solutions for drone fleet management, today launched its mobile application, NVDash, that promises to bring drone management into the digital age. New commercial drone regulations, titled Part 107, are effective as of today. With the new regulations, many expect a massive increase in U.S. commercial drone activity. Among other rule […]

It’s all about growth and saving money, according to Mike Winn, DroneDeploy’s co-founder and CEO. DroneDeploy take images from drones and turns them into maps and actionable data. “We had already seen remarkable growth in the commercial drone industry the last few months, and before the Part 107 implementation, the amount of data generated by our users […]

SimActive Inc., a world-leading developer of photogrammetry software, is pleased to announce that Airobotics has chosen Correlator3D™ for its drone platforms. The software will be used to derive mapping products for the needs of industries such as energy, mining and oil & gas. “We are excited to partner with SimActive, a leading industrial photogrammetry […]

Since receiving an experimental airworthiness certificate from the FAA to research operations within extended visual line of sight, PrecisionHawk has proven a safety case to advance its research to include commercial operations beyond the visual line of sight of the drone operator Under a Part 107 waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration, announced today, […]

I keep forgetting Christmas will soon be upon us. Another small quadcopter, controlled only by a smartphone. So we are moving away from traditional RC and towards total autonomy. Set and forget flying. Expect more announcements in the next few days, it is almost IFA in Berlin. Yuneec – Breeze: MyFlyingCamera: – Compact Quadcopter to […]

The long-awaited Small Unmanned Aircraft (sUAS) rule known as Part 107 from the FAA went into effect today. Almost immediately, members from the Aeronautical Science Department from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus became some of the first in the nation to begin flying, opening new doors for students and faculty in the Unmanned Aircraft […]

We are pleased to announce that FAA accepted our Petition for Amendment to Section-333 Exemption, and instead, today, FAA Granted our company Part-107 Waiver Approval to conduct Small UAS (sUAS) Nighttime Operations in accordance with our original Section-333 Exemption, and within our nationwide COA, on any of the FAA-approved 1150 sUAS Drone Platforms. It also […]

Kespry, which designs automated drone systems for commercial use, today announced the new Kespry Drone 2.0. The new lighter-weight drone flies 2X as long, covers 2X the ground area, and has 2X the wind resilience, due to the new airframe, battery, and flight system improvements. Based on requests from commercial customers, the new Kespry Drone […]

Wild Rabbit Aerial Productions is proud to announce that they are one of the few “Closed Set Filming” drone companies in the Greater Los Angeles area that is both FAA 333 Exempt and Part 107 compliant! Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that as of today, all Part 107 operators of small-unmanned aircrafts must submit […]

You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties, it’s a great song (if you are of a certain age) two people will be in the kitchen at the 107 party today. They should really be on the stage. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta will preside over […]

WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta today announced the implementation of the first operational rules for routine non-hobbyist use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or “drones”). The regulations on June 21, 2016 officially take effect today. “People are captivated by the limitless possibilities unmanned aircraft offer, […]

Kurt Carraway SALINA — As the new regulations for commercial operations of small unmanned aircraft systems, known as Part 107, take effect, the UAS program on Kansas State University’s Polytechnic Campus is joining a research effort to assist the Federal Aviation Administration with potential next steps in that rule-making process. Kansas State Polytechnic is collaborating […]

It’s all kicking off ahead of the FAA press conference this morning. Find it here https://www.faa.gov/uas/request_waiver/ Obviously, you can’t apply for a waiver until you have your personal pilot paperwork sorted. The big list of things that require a waiver below. The good news for farm drones is 107.25, you could follow your drone around […]

I recently had to remove a fence to get a container placed in a field. It was a bit of pain. A new kid on the block wants to make that pain go away. Charles Bombardier and Tom Hobbs have released concept renderings of a jet powered multirotor. This quadcopter designed to move shipping containers […]

It is another glorious picture fail from FARS. This time, a claimed VTOL, the Roham. A pretty cool design as it has absolutely no rotors or tail sitting encumbrances if it is the platform in the image. So quite how they are making it VTOL onto the shown skids I just don’t know. I suspect […]

DJI, the world’s leading maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, expects new streamlined drone regulations taking effect Monday will lead to rapid innovation as American businesses, farmers, government agencies, educational institutions and nonprofits use drones to make their operations safer, less expensive and more efficient. “The new federal drone rule unlocks the potential of drone technology […]

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) new small drone rule – formally known as Part 107 – is effective on August 29. You may also be wondering what happens to your Section 333 exemption grant or petition for exemption. The biggest question is whether you are better off flying under the provisions of Part 107, or […]

Tasmania, home to the world’s largest multirotor racers! I am torn between thinking this giant drone racing idea is work of genius or lunacy. I get that we will all be able to see and hear them from the sidelines. They will be able to lift all sorts of exotic HD video hardware. Including VR 360 […]

Co-manager of the firm AirCity Diagnostic and civil drone operator in Aquitaine, in the south west of France, Loïc Richard was the project manager in charge of coordinating the operations and setting up the technological partnerships required for the success of the project. « In order to map and model the Pic d’Ossau over such […]

There are a few common threads here at the 10th Annual 2016 UAS Summit & Expo in Grand Forks, North Dakota. First, North Dakota remains a shining example of what can happen to a locale when there exists a common vision and when partnerships are formed that include all the stakeholders sharing that vision. It […]

We first saw renders for this new drone back at Easter. It looks like it really is ready to fly the nest. Fair play to them for daring to be different. PowerEgg™, the first consumer drone developed by PowerVision Technology Group, a worldwide leader in robotics and big data technologies, is now available for global […]

I created this free Part 107 test study guide to help my clients and the drone community based upon my experience as a FAA certificated flight instructor and aviation attorney. The FAA compiled a list of references in the final ACS and FAA study guide. Unfortunately, they did not include everything you need or would […]

I know for certain there is one fault in Henri Seydoux’s new flying wing launch video. It won’t attract girlfriends, sorry its a fact of life! Something that has, well not quite been bothering me. But interesting me is the space behind the flight battery. It looks on first glance big enough to fit Parrot’s […]

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, and electro-optic and related mission systems solutions, today announced that the company’s new Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Flight Training Academy graduated its first cadre of GA-ASI aircrews on August 12th. “Our first graduates have benefitted from safe, effective, cutting-edge […]