A team of researchers in northwest China says it has developed a way to use high-energy laser beams, not to destroy drones but to keep them in the air “forever”.

Using a combination of drones and machine learning techniques, researchers from The Ohio State University have recently developed a novel method for determining crop health and used it to create a new tool that may aid future farmers.

German startup Volocopter announced that its four-seat electric aircraft VoloConnect made its first successful flight in May 2022. The vehicle concept spent 2 minutes and 14 seconds in the air. The prototype has all the planned aerodynamic and tactical-technical characteristics of the future commercial product.

In the nearest future an experiment on implementation of unmanned aircraft systems will start in five regions of Russia. Resolutions to this effect were signed by the Chairman of the Government Mikhail Mishustin.

RN-Purneftegaz, which is part of Rosneft's oil and gas production complex, is increasing overflights of production facilities and pipelines using Russian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in 2022. The number of aerial monitoring routes increased from 8 to 17, monthly kilometers increased to 6,700 km.

The Almaz-Antey Concern has successfully completed state acceptance tests of the ROSC-1 radar-optical complex for ensuring security of critical facilities at Kurumoch International Airport in Samara.

FlyingBasket and Bayerische Staatsforsten (BaySF) joined forces to test the use of cargo drones for tree planting in the mountains. After FlyingBasket obtained crossborder operation authorisation by the Federal Aviation Office in Germany, the team was able to start the trial by transporting 2,000 young trees from a location in the valley of Aschau, Southern Bavaria, to 18 planting locations up in the mountains near the famous Kampenwand.

Kaman Air Vehicles, a division of Kaman Aerospace Corporation, announced today the first flight of its new unmanned helicopter, the K-MAX TITAN™. The world’s first heavy lift unmanned helicopter for the commercial market, K-MAX TITAN™ leads the way in repetitive, heavy lift without the constraints of manned operations. With a focus on enabling safety and operational efficiency, the proprietary K-MAX TITAN™ system will redefine the helicopter external lift market by increasing future mission capabilities in any location and any type of weather.

Unmanned aviation follows the path of manned. At the beginning of the XX century, first, there were reconnaissance airplanes, then they learned to drop bombs from them. We fought the first planes initially from the ground with machine-gun and artillery fire, it turned out to be expensive and inefficient. Until specialized fighter planes appeared. History repeats itself with unmanned aircraft. Shooting down drones with missiles or cannons is also expensive and also inefficient. It was clear that soon the reconnaissance and strike drones would be hunted by unmanned fighters. The first such device was presented by the Russian company ZALA DEFENSE.