Tag: Autonomous Flight

Saab Providing Drone Swarming Capability for Sweden’s Armed Forces

Aviation Week reports, “Sweden’s armed forces have revealed a secret drone swarming program using software developed by Saab. The system, developed over the past year, is designed for sub-25-kg (55.1 lb.) uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). It allows individual soldiers to control as many as 100 drones at a time to gather intelligence, defense officials say.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

General Atomics’ XQ-67A Makes First Flight

Defense One reports, “General Atomics’ new air combat drone has flown, another step toward what the Air Force is calling the ‘first of a second generation’ of autonomous aircraft.”  First flight occurred February 28 from “General Atomics’ Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale California, AFRL officials announced.”
Full Story (Defense One)

 

Video

General Atomics introduces its XQ-67A
(General Atomics; YouTube)

 

Reliable Robotics Completes Study for USAF Examining Autonomous Flight

Aviation Week reports that Reliable Robotics “has completed a study for the U.S. Air Force examining retrofitting the service’s large multi-engine jets with its autonomous flight control technology and says only ‘modest’ changes would be needed to accommodate its systems.” The study “did not focus on any specific airframe.”
Full Story (Aviation Week – Subscription Publication)

DARPA Successfully Completes Autonomous Black Hawk Flight

Aviation Week reports that DARPA and Sikorsky “have conducted the first fully autonomous flights of a UH-60 Black Hawk with no one on board the helicopter. The flights involved a modified S-70A optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) testbed fitted with Sikorsky’s Matrix autonomy system under DARPA’s Alias program.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Helicopter Business Leaders Set Stage for EVOTLs

Aviation International News reported that rotorcraft industry leaders “addressing the Helicopter Investor conference this week in London expressed measured optimism over prospects for the emerging advanced air mobility sector.” Their shared belief is that “new eVTOL aircraft will start to be used for some current helicopter use cases, albeit most speakers expressed doubt that this will start happening from 2025, as many of the more bullish market entrants are insisting.” Companies like Lobo Leasing have added promised to add eVOTL aircraft to their offerings, with Lobo already having placed a down payment on Pipistrel’s Nuuva autonomous cargo vehicles.
Full Story (Aviation International News)

 

 Video
Pipistel’s Nuuva V300

A revolutionary long-range large-capacity heavy-weight autonomous eVTOL UAV for aerial cargo delivery.
(Pipistrel Aircraft; YouTube)

Second Loyal Wingman UAV Performs Flight Tests

Aviation Week reports that a second Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS), “better known as the Loyal Wingman, has commenced flight tests at Australia’s Woomera Range Complex, including the raising and lower of the undercarriage.” Both UAVs “are performing separate flight tests.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Sikorsky and Rain Successfully Demonstrate Wildfire Mission Autonomy

Unmanned Systems Technology reports, “Sikorsky and Rain have successfully demonstrated how an autonomous Black Hawk helicopter can be commanded to take off, identify the location and size of a small fire, and then accurately drop water to suppress the flames. Carried out on October 29 at Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, the Rapid Wildfire Response Demonstration showed the effective fusion of Sikorsky’s MATRIX flight autonomy with Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy system to suppress a fire in its incipient stage using this innovative firefighting UAV.”
Full Story (Unmanned Systems Technology)

Air Force Considers Two Business Models for Integrating Robotic Wingmen

FedScoop reported that the US Air Force “plans to create a ‘family of systems’ for its Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to develop a stealthy sixth-generation fighter as well as drones – also referred to as autonomous ‘collaborative combat aircraft’ (CCA) – and various mission systems that could accompany them into battle. The service has outlined a similar vision for the B-21 Raider, its next-gen stealth bomber.” US Air Force Secretary Special Assistant Tim Grayson said the US Air Force will be “trying to take multiple capabilities from within a family of systems and execute them within a program office, but not as a single rigid, monolithically integrated platform, while at the same time having different program offices building different pieces of the solution that can still be interoperable and work together.”
Full Story (FedScoop)

EHang Receives First Order for VT-30 UAV

Aviation International News reports that EHang “has received the first order for its VT-30 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle, with Japan’s Okayama Kurashiki Mizushima Aero & Space Industry Cluster Study Group (MASC) committing to exploring use cases for the two-seat eVTOL aircraft, as well as the Chinese manufacturer’s EH216 model.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

US Air Force to Field Loyal Wingman UAVs

FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force “is ready to move beyond experimentation with unmanned combat aircraft and toward acquiring and fielding the next-generation unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, “We are going to take a period of time to sort all that out and then we are going to get onto something that we are going to field. It’s a commitment to going forward in a direction that we have been thinking about and experimenting with but haven’t committed to before. So, that’s a major change actually.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)