UAV News Talk – Drone News, eVTOLs, UAS Policy & Air Mobility

This Episode:

The Reaper is turned into a Jammer, drones are spying on chickens in Australia, FAA rules for small UAS’s delayed again, UAV privacy questions remain, a new UAS Test Center in the UK, monitoring wildlife with a PUMA and the weather with a Global Hawk, FEMA shuts down Colorado UAV flights, and more multi-rotor’s come down in crowds.

The News:

Jamming Pod Demonstrated on MQ-9 Reaper UAV

General Atomics has fitted a Northrop Grumman jamming pod to an MQ-9 Reaper. The test flight occurred back in April during a U.S. Marine Corps weapons and tactics instructor (WTI) course, but has only recently been made public. Planned for the October WTI course is a demonstration with EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare (EW) jets and smaller unmanned aircraft.

Animal Liberation activists launch spy drone to test free-range claims

Australian activists are concerned that some large free-range chicken farms are not in fact free-range. So for $17,000 they purchased a hexacopter, fitted it with an HD video camera, and flew it over the farms to document their claims. The group says this does not violate trespass laws.

First Commercial UAS Flight Due; Small UAS Rule Delayed

An Insitu ScanEagle was expected to make the first commercial flight of an unmanned aircraft on September 11, under a restricted category type certification the FAA awarded in July. ConocoPhillips was to launch the ScanEagle from a research vessel in the Arctic Ocean west of Alaska to monitor whale migrations and ice flows.

The FAA’s release of a Notice of Proposed RuleMaking (NPRM) which would govern the operation of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) weighing up to 55 pounds has been delayed until early in 2014.

UAV Operations in National Air Space Advance as Privacy Fight Heats Up

The standards being developed for sUAS over: UAV design, including command and control systems, batteries, production, quality assurance, maintenance, and continued airworthiness, the aircraft flight manual, and operations over populated areas.

ASTM International developed the initial standards for the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Committee that was chartered in 2008. That feeds the NPRM process which includes a mechanism for public comment.

The ASTM standards committee for large UAS was unable to make enough progress, so it’s mission was changed to minimum operational performance standards (or MOPS) for detect-and-avoid equipment.

Unlike the slow rule-making progress for commercial UAS, Government agencies (like law enforcement and public safety) can move quickly as a result of the March MOU between the FAA and the Department of Justice.

UK Inaugurates National UAS Test Center

Two UK airports (West Wales Airport and Newquay Cornwall Airport) have launched a “National Aeronautical Center” (NAC) to develop, test and demonstrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), both commercial and military.

More drones coming Saturday in NOAA tests

NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations is testing the PUMA UAS in the Florida Keys to monitor wildlife without disturbing them.

Spy Drones Turning Up New Data About Hurricanes And Weather and NASA to Investigate Tropical Storm Humberto: Atlantic’s Second “Zombie Tropical Storm”

NASA is flying two Global Hawks from Wallops Island over Hurricanes under the five-year HS3 (Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel) Mission.

Falcon UAV Supports Colorado Flooding Until Grounded by FEMA

The Falcon UAV was providing valuable aerial imagery of the recent tragic Colorado floods. However, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) has arrived with conventional manned aircraft and the Falcon was ordered to stand down.

Multirotor Crashes into Crowd in Spain and Pirate Party Crashes Spy Drone in Front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel

A hexacopter comes down into a packed crowd in Spain, allegedly injuring several people. Meanwhile, in Dresden, Germany at a political party campaign rally, another copter came down in front of the podium.

This Episode:

Optionally piloted helicopters, fast response from the FAA to drone requests, a forecast of the global UAV market, success tips for UAV suppliers, and water sampling drones.

The News:

Polish SW-4 Solo to Assist Royal Navy Rotary-Wing UAS (RWUAS) Study

The SW-4 SOLO RUAS (Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial System) is being introduced by PZL-Świdnik, and Agusta-Westland based on the PZL SW-4 light single engine helicopter. This Optionally Piloted Helicopter (OPH) is under the RWUAS (Rotary Wing Unmanned Air System) Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) programme as a conceptual multi-role UAV for the UK Royal Navy.

Others have activity in the OPH arena: Sikorsky Aircraft has a research program called Matrix Technology to develop systems and software for autonomous, optionally piloted, and piloted vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. They are using an optionally piloted S-76 called the Sikorsky Autonomous Research Aircraft (S.A.R.A.) as a flying lab, and plan to demonstrate operation with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk.

Eurocopter (now to be renamed Airbus Helicopter) has conducted demonstration flights with an optionally piloted EC145. Reportedly, they now plan to look to OPV variants of its product line.

FAA Cuts the Red Tape to Let UAS Work Yosemite Wildfire

Desperate to get a better view of the giant wildfire last month, the call for help from the Incident Commander went to the California governor’s office, then to the Department of Defense and the FAA for help. An emergency Certificate of Authorization was issued within hours by the FAA to the California Air National Guard to fly to the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator over the Yosemite fire.

The Global UAV Market 2013-2023

A report titled “The Global UAV Market 2013–2023” has been released by Strategic Defence Intelligence. This $4,800 report states that the Global UAV market is estimated at US$114.7 billion during the next 10 years, with most coming from North America, but Europe spending US$24.3 billion on UAVs. HALE UAVs are forecast to constitute the largest share of the UAV market.

Managing The UAV Madness: 5 Keys To Success

Agricultural applications for unmanned aircraft is probably a huge opportunity. Robert Blair is a wheat grower in Kendrick, Idaho. He spoke at the InfoAg Conference about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and offered some advice.

University of Nebraska Lincoln helping develop water-sampling drones

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded a $956,210 grant for the three-year “Co-Aerial Ecologist: Robotic Water Sampling and Sensing in the Wild” project as part of the National Robotics Initiative. UNL is seeking to develop a UAV that can be located near a water source, fly out and take water samples, then return them for analysis.

They already have a modified AscTec Firefly copter that can take several 20ml water samples, but it can only fly a 20 minute mission. They hope to extend that and make the vehicle autonomous. Perhaps perform on-board analysis of the water samples. From the video, you can see they’ve demonstrated the copter in the lab and outside in a pool. This is taking place at the Nebraska Intelligent MoBile Unmanned Systems Lab (NIMBUS).

This Episode:

Using a hexacopter for wildlife management, airline pilots are concerned about UAVs, a copter goes into a crowd, wildfire fighting with a Predator, a sea-faring drone, building a ground station, and a Chinese attack UAV under development.

The News:

Canada plans to use hexacopter drones in war against geese

An Ottawa beach has been plagued by geese despite attempts to scare them off with trained dogs, loud noises, and other means. Along comes Steve Wambolt, the owner of Aerial Perspective, with a Flame Wheel 550 hexacopter and an idea, and he’s successfully used the craft to drive most of the geese away.

Pilot Group Expresses Concern Over Sharing the Sky With Drones

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) representing over 59,000 airline pilots issued (in April 2011) a white paper, “Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Challenges for Safely Operating in the National Airspace System” which says, “The fundamental function of operating the aircraft in a safe manner must be maintained at the same level of safety regardless of the location of the pilot or the levels of automation.” Military UAS operations do not meet this criteria. 

When Drones fall from the Skies

At an event called the Great Bull Run at a racetrack in Virginia, a drone copter with a camera flying over the stands, suddenly veered downward and into the crowd. Five people suffered minor injuries. 

Predator UAV Provides Surveillance in Battle Against Yosemite Fire

The MQ-1 Predator is flown for 22 Hours in support of the RIM fire in Yosemite National Park. The 163rd Reconnaissance Wing of the California Air National Guard out of Victorville Southern California Logistics Airport used Infrared cameras to determine hot spots and contained areas, and provided real time images to people on the ground.

Transatlantic Drone Takes to the Sea

It’s not aerial, but it is a drone. It’s an unmanned robotic boat called the Scout designed by students in seven colleges to cross the Atlantic Ocean. You can follow the progress of the craft at the Scout Transatlantic website.

Tearing an old laptop apart to build a ground control station

Here, parts from an old broken laptop and some other components are assembled in a Pelican case as a ground station. The DIY community is very active in the unmanned vehicle arena. It’s a bit like the early days of the personal computer when the term “hacker” meant something positive that geeks aspired to.

China’s ‘Sharp Sword’ stealth UAV to make first flight one year later

China’s “Sharp Sword” attack unmanned aerial vehicle has been seen taxiing around and was captured on video. It looks a little like the X-47B. The report is that we will see a first flight in one year.

A quadcopter that is also a plane, chasing storms (and other things) with disposable UAV’s, using UAV’s in place of satellites, and a tiny town that wants to pay you to shoot down drones.

The News:

Whaddaya get when you cross a quadcopter with a plane? The HQ UAV

For take-offs, landings and hovering, the Latitude Engineering HQ utilizes four horizontally-mounted propellers – just like a regular quadcopter. These are each driven by an individual electric motor, all four of which receive their power from two 5-cell 11,000 milliamp-hour lithium-polymer battery packs.

Cheap, Disposable Drones Are the New Storm Chasers

Some environments are simply hazardous for flying: wildfires and volcanic eruptions are examples. These are perfect opportunities for drones to provide the kind of observation you’d like to avoid with a manned aircraft.

The DataHawk from the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado Boulder is to be used to measure Arctic Ocean ice melt. This will actually be flown to a spot on the ocean, then float like a buoy and drop sensors into the water to make measurements.

The University of Queensland in Australia designed a $50 plane made from biodegradable paper. The electronics are printed directly onto the body of the plane, which has small voice-coil actuators for steering.

The Samara prototype, also from the University of Queensland, falls slowly and transmits data by radio, and works like a Maple seed.

Solar-powered Solara UAV could stay aloft for years

The Titan Aerospace has designed the Solara UAV to stay aloft for 5 years at 65,000 feet as an “atmospheric satellite.” These have solar cell covered wings over 160 feet across.

Colo. ordinance would OK shooting down drones and FAA Warns Colorado Town Against Drone Hunting

Deer Trail, Colorado, population 559, want you to shoot down drones and the License is only $25.00. Shoot down a drone and you’ would earn a $100 bounty. Not all residents agree, and citizens get to vote on the proposal in October. The Federal Aviation Administration regulates the U.S. airspace and has issued a statement warning people that shooting drones could result in fines and prosecutions.

Guest Jamie Dodson is Foreign Intelligence Officer, and Senior Technology Protection Engineer for the US Army Aviation & Missile Command. He has over 30 years of experience in Intelligence Operations for the US Military, having served with Special Operations, Army Aviation, Airborne Infantry, and Military Police. He is also author of the award winning Nick Grant Adventures series. Find him on Facebook.

The News:

‘Sense and Avoid’ Technology Evaluated in Weeklong Flight Tests

Unmanned aircraft have to know how to avoid other aircraft, but especially other unmanned aircraft. To test Sense and Avoid software developed by the MITRE Corp., the University of North Dakota and Draper Labs, NASA’s Langley Research Center has conducted flight demonstrations with a Cirrus SR-22 and a Cessna 206 through the Limited Deployment-Cooperative Airspace Project (LD-CAP). The system uses ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) as the sensor.

T-20 UAV Reaches high Altitude Mark

The Arcturus T-20 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has been flown to an altitude of 23,500′ MSL. The primary mission of the T-20 is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance: aerial mapping, drug interdiction, border patrol, force protection, search and rescue, as well as military ISR. The T-20 is also being studied for use in fighting wild fires.

4.) Drones to protect Baltimore and DC and Don’t Be Alarmed by the Drone Blimps Hovering Over D.C. They’re Here to Stop Cruise Missiles

Two Raytheon JLENS (Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor) helium-filled aerostats are planned to provide Washington, DC with protection against threats such as cruise missiles, high-speed attack boats, armed drones, planes, tanks, and trucks. Guest Jamie Dodson played a role in the JLENS program.

The Killing Machines by Mark Bowden a national correspondent for The Atlantic.

This well done article is balanced and presents the history and current issues associated with military drone strikes. Highly recommended regardless of your position on this issue.

Recorded 22 August 2013

The word “drone” has a negative connotation to some. What does it mean and can perception be changed?

This week’s event:

Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems 2013 Conference

Aug 12 – 15, 2013 in Washington, DC

AUVSI is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the unmanned systems and robotics community. They have 7,500 members from government organizations, industry and academia. AUVSI members support defense, civil and commercial sectors.

The News:

DON’T SAY ‘DRONES,’ Beg Drone Makers

To the public, “drone” has a bad connotation: military, death, etc. Can the industry change the word and change perception?

Florida Keys turns to UAVs to take on mosquitos

The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is set to begin testing August 26 a Condor Aerial Maveric fixed wing UAV. They’ll use infrared cameras to identify pools of water that can host mosquito larvae. Then the water would be treated with larvicide on the ground. The Maveric was originally developed for law enforcement.

Northrop Offers Rental Drones To Air Force, Customs Training

Northrop Grumman has a new idea for the Air Force and U.S. Customs and Border Protection: rather than train remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pilots on MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers or in expensive simulators, give them basic flying time on a small SandShark drone. They’d pay by the hour.

This would save $70M per year. Operators can control them over any 4G cellphone network or the Internet.

UAVs in the U.S. Coast Guard

Drug smugglers have something new to worry about: the ScanEagle UAS. In demonstration trials, the Coast Guard interdicted a half ton of cocaine. They want to roll out the ScanEagle across its national security cutter fleet, starting in fiscal 2017.

AUVSI: Insitu looks to widen civilian ScanEagle applications

Boeing subsidiary Insitu continues to make commercial headway with the ScanEagle. In addition to the Coast Guard application, an undisclosed oil company plans to perform ice flow monitoring and wildlife observation flights off the Alaska coast.

ScanEagle air vehicles have logged more than 730,000 operational flight hours, through more than 88,000 sorties.

In this first episode, we introduce ourselves, define some unmanned aerial vehicle terminology, and briefly comment on the recent FAA action to grant type certification to the Insitu ScanEagle and the AeroVironment Puma.

FAA Certification for ScanEagle

AeroVironment’s Puma AE Small Unmanned Aircraft System Receives Federal Aviation Administration Type Certificate for Commercial Use