Swedish manufacturer SmartPlanes has announced that the SmartPlanes Freya UAV is included in the NASA UAS Traffic Management (UTM) R&D Technical Capability Level 3 (TCL 3) project, at the FAA-designated Nevada UAS test site. SmartPlanes is represented by its US distributor Carbon Autonomous.

Registration is now open for Drone World Expo 2017. From October 3-4, the 3rd annual Drone World Expo will once again gather thousands of thought leaders, end-users and decision makers in the commercial drone industry at the San Jose Convention Center. 

South Korea is planning to train 1,700 drone operators a year to meet growing demand in the commercial drone industry, the transport ministry said on Tuesday.

AutoModality, whose technology allows drones to automatically conduct close-up inspections of bridges, buildings, power lines and other structures, has won the $1 million grand prize in the Genius NY business competition. 

A Taranaki drone company has made history by flying an unmanned aircraft ”beyond line of sight” to inspect power transmission lines in the Rimutaka Ranges.

Leidos Flight Service has created an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) service that helps safeguard the airspace by sending automatic notifications of unmanned aircraft operations to relevant groups. 

DARPA recently completed Phase 1 of its Gremlins program, which envisions volleys of low-cost, reusable unmanned aerial systems (UASs)—or “gremlins”—that could be launched and later retrieved in mid-air. Taking the program to its next stage, the Agency has now awarded Phase 2 contracts to two teams, one led by Dynetics, Inc. (Huntsville, Ala.) and the other by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (San Diego, Calif.).

A diagram shows how an Amazon drone could land on a sloping surface while keeping its main frame level, thanks to telescoping landing legs. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)

US Air Force security forces, as well as other military personnel and federal law enforcement agencies, may soon be getting a new tool to take down small commercial drones: shotgun shells with a net. The special cartridge is just one system the Pentagon has been looking at to manage the growing threat from small and readily available quad-and hex-copter-type unmanned aircraft.

China’s aerospace engineers boast the “Caihong” is the world’s largest solar-powered drone, dwarfing NASA’s Pathfinder series that never made it into mass production. The prospect of the drone leading in disaster monitoring is in the horizon.