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

A new tracking and avoidance system, drones that assist firefighters, a Phantom firmware rollback, drone waiters that bring your meal, a personal No Fly Zone, shooting down those pesky drones, Qualcomm buys KMel Robotics, and California seeks to regulate drones below 400 feet. News PrecisionHawk Announces UAV Tracking and Avoidance System PrecisionHawk released an automated traffic control system...

A drone flies over a volcano for live TV, Alibaba tests drone package delivery, more Section 333 exemptions, drones for real estate, and a poll shows Americans want regulations. News ‘GMA’ Flies Drone Over Erupting Volcano Live ABC’s Good Morning America television show flew two quadcopters over the erupting Bardarbunga Volcano in central Iceland. And they broadcast the video live on national TV....

Drone crashes on the White House lawn, actors playing drone pilots, a waterproof drone swims with the fishes, fighting fires with optionally manned helicopters, a record UAS flight, drone regulations around the world, and new FAA exemptions. White House Incursion Obama Says US Must Catch up to Ensure Drones Are Safe Don’t drink and drone: Bozo who crashed drone at White House had been boozing Whit...

UAV training in Canada and Britain, a government hearing on UAS research and development, no date from FAA on the sUAS NPRM, a UAS communications study, and drugs on a drone. News 1st Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) instruction designed specifically to meet Transport Canada’s new requirements Aerobotika Aerial Intelligence and Pacific Rim Aviation Academy have partnered to offer a UAV pilot training ac...

The FAA tells law enforcement what their role is in policing UAS usage, CNN signs an agreement with the FAA to share drone journalism research results, and drones are big at the Consumer Electronics Show. News FAA Issues UAS Guidance for Law Enforcement This isn’t guidance on how law enforcement can use UAS. It’s guidance on how law enforcement plays a vital role in “deterring, detecting and inves...

A charging pad for your drone, USAF Unmanned Systems faces a huge manpower problem, real estate and agriculture gain FAA exemptions, timeline for ICAO RPAS standards, and UAS in Canada. News New Charging Pad for Parrot Drones Changes the Way You Charge Your Batteries The portable  Skysense  Charging Pad is said to support nearly all existing multicopters and VTOL aircraft. Plug the...

No sUAS NPRM, “Know Before You Fly” safety campaign, it may be OK to say “drone” now, UAS America Fund proposes rules, drone privacy legislation, ICAO looks at integrating RPAS into the air space, an embarrassing UAS test center first flight, and the MQ-8C Fire Scout takes flight. News No Firm Date For UAV Rules As FAA, Industry Launch Safety Campaign At 2014 year-end, we don’t have an sUAS NPRM f...

The FAA issues more exemptions, the NPRM might affect hobbyists, NYC looks at banning drones, agriculture eager to get started, Fort Bliss is building a drone port, and drone videos for the holidays. News FAA Grants Five More Commercial UAS Exemptions The FAA granted five regulatory exemptions for unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations to four companies under Section 333 of the FAA Modernizatio...

A new civilian HALE, 12 drones for the holidays, where to fly your drone in the UK and Canada, drone near misses and hits, and a holiday video of the week. News Arca Space Announces New Range of High-Altitude UAVs New Mexico-based  Arca Space Corporation  announced the  AirStrato  line of electric HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) UAVs. These fill a gap between large, expensi...

Should we be satisfied with strict regulations if that will allow commercial operation of UAVs to begin? Also: The FAA looks to focus on drone certification and pilot standards, Canada makes it easier to fly small UAVs, UAS pilot training, model aircrafters getting swept up in drone regulations, and a proposal to allow drones to fly in US National Parks. Guest Ryan Morton  is a roboticist. He...

Sneak peak at the FAA sUAS regulations, NZ drone regs, bioengineered drones, busting poachers, the threat to airliners, first amendment issues, and GoPro to enter the UAV market. News Drone Flights Face FAA Hit The Wall Street Journal reports that “people familiar with the rule-making process” are talking about what we can expect in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) from the FAA for sUAS. T...

The NTSB issued its Opinion and Order in the FAA v. Raphael Pirker matter, reversing the Administrative Law Judge’s decisional order and remanding the matter for further proceedings. Guest Justine Harrison is an attorney whose practice includes corporate and aviation law. She’s a multi-engine instrument rated pilot, aircraft owner/operator, and an experimental aircraft builder. Justine understands...

Opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs looking to develop a commercial UAV business. This Episode The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle industry is in its infancy and presents many business opportunities to entrepreneurs. Some opportunities are obvious, like agriculture, real estate, emergency response, and package delivery. Others have not yet been imagined. In this episode, we look at issues for U...

A new ScanEagle from Insitu, an Ohio UAS test site is up and running, students learning about UAVs in a precision agriculture program, ABC creating drone journalism policies, and a drone on an urban rescue mission. News Insitu Launches New ScanEagle 2 UAS The new  Insitu ScanEagle 2  features a slightly longer fuselage, the same wingspan, and a new engine from  Orbital . Endurance o...

Drones assist with solar energy production, the satellite industry sees UAS opportunities, a quadcopter approaches a commercial flight, NYPD is developing a plan to counter weaponized drones, and more from the NBAA panel discussion on UAS. News These Drones With Little Brooms Keep Solar Panels Clean Large solar panel farms are increasingly being used to generate electricity. You can capture a lot...

We review the Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Regulatory and Legal Developments panel discussion at the NBAA 2014 conference. NBAA2014 – BUSINESS AVIATION CONVENTION & EXHIBITION At the  NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition  in Florida on October 21, 2014, a panel discussion was held titled,  “Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Regulatory and Legal Developments.” The Panel...

An amphibian RPA, India bans drones, open source code for drones, area terrain mapping, DARPA’s ship-based MALE UAV concept, a new UAV market study, and more on logbooks for drone pilots. News The Flyox Amphib UAV enters market Singular Aircraft  has released the Flyox I, an amphibian RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft) that can take off and land on water, as well as on unpaved runways and snow....

The Small UAV Coalition launches, law enforcement using drones, UAVs showcased, a spat over the MQ-9 Reaper, GNSS developments, and logbooks for UAV pilots. News Small UAV Coalition formed to promote civil and commercial use of small UAVs Eight companies have formally launched the  Small UAV Coalition  to facilitate the entry of small UAVs in the United States and abroad. The Coalition i...

Agriculture wants UAVs, the White House seeks drone data transparency, a wearable quadcopter, UAVs fight poachers, and Facebook plans to offer Internet access via drone. News FAA’s Sluggish UAV Ruling Slows Ag Research, Group Suggests Commercial farmers everywhere are eager to apply new technology to their operations. That includes using unmanned aircraft for things like crop and livestock surveys...

Production companies get sUAS exemptions, FAA wants N-numbers for drones, new chip offers possibility of smarter UAS controllers, Google wants to test Internet service, and DHL will provide package delivery. Guest Guest Tim Trott has a broadcast production background, but today at Tim Trott Productions, he creates video for a range of services, including real estate tours, industrial videos, train...

FAA grants an emergency COA, Reno is not just for manned aircraft anymore, Chinese inflatable UAVs, more UAS regulations, and more bad behavior with drones. News Drones Get Waiver to Search for Missing Texas Woman Christina Morris The FAA granted an  Emergency COA  to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of Gaithersburg, MD in order to utilize an Unmanned Aircraft Sy...

Sense and Avoid by NASA and General Atomics, South African rules by 2015, Amazon’s drone page, package delivery by Flirtey and Google, and cease and desist letters from the FAA. Guest Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., (USMC-Ret.), the NASA Administrator since July, 2009. In this clip from a longer interview recorded for the  Airplane Geeks  podcast, Charlie talks about NASA’s activity...

FAA sued over drone restrictions, UAV arrests and confiscations, privacy legislation in California, UCLASS delay, NASA developing ATC for drones, Disney seeks UAS patents. News Lawsuits Assert Broad Economic and Scientific Impact of FAA’s Drone Restrictions Three lawsuits have been filed by attorney  Brenden Schulman  ( @dronelaws ) over the FAA’s  Interpretation of the Special Rule...

Guest Dr. Ernest Earon is President and Co-founder of  PrecisionHawk . Their Lancaster Platform is designed around the goals of ease of use and autonomous collection of high resolution aerial data. Much of the focus is on agricultural applications, but their platform, and data collection and analysis methodology is applicable to a variety of industries. The  NUAIR Alliance , one of the s...

The FAA definition of an aircraft, drones and agriculture, UAV privacy issues, FAA solicits a UAS Center of Excellence, Amazon Prime Air, X-47B milestone, drone legislation, and a successful UAV company despite regulatory uncertainty. News FAA Thinks Two Pound Drones Aircraft. But 1100 Pound, Manned and Flying Craft? Unsure. The FAA’s June interpretive rule treats model airplanes as aircraft....