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Category: drones – Page 62

“Once operational, the MQ-25 will refuel every receiver-capable platform including E-2,” Reed said in a separate news release on the August flight test between T1 and the Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Zero (VX) 20. “This flight keeps us on a fast track to getting the Stingray out to the fleet where its refueling capability will greatly increase the range and operational flexibility of the carrier air wing and strike group.”

The first aerial refueling test was conducted on June 4, when an F/A-18E-F Super Hornet refueled in air with the unmanned tanker for the first time in naval aviation history. In this first in-air encounter with the drone, a Super Hornet approached to take measurements, made several “dry connects” to practice connecting and detaching from the tanker, and made two actual refuelings, with 300 pounds and then 25 pounds of fuel being passed from the Stingray to the Super Hornet at different altitudes and flying conditions.

Last month, the Navy and Boeing conducted in a virtual environment the first manned-unmanned teaming event between the Stingray and a Super Hornet, where the manned jet bypassed the ground control station and communicated directly with the tanker drone to give directions on where and when to rendezvous for a refueling.

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A Shortfall of Gravitas: SpaceX’s new drone ship detailed

The ship supported its first mission on August 29. This was the 23rd Commercial Resupply Services mission, the latest in a series of launches for NASA that sends cargo to the International Space Station.

A Shortfall of Gravitas is a notable upgrade over previous ships. SpaceX explained during the mission launch livestream that it improves over its predecessors with a fully autonomous operation procedure. That means it can travel to sea, find its position, receive the rocket, grab the rocket with the “octograbber” robot and return it to land — all autonomously.

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LOD, Israel — An Israeli defense contractor on Monday unveiled a remote-controlled armed robot it says can patrol battle zones, track infiltrators and open fire. The unmanned vehicle is the latest addition to the world of drone technology, which is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield.

Proponents say such semi-autonomous machines allow armies to protect their soldiers, while critics fear this marks another dangerous step toward robots making life-or-death decisions.

The four-wheel-drive robot presented Monday was developed by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries’ “REX MKII.”

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NASA and Joby’s eVTOL craft could be the weird plane/chopper fusion of the future.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is also America’s civilian aerospace research organization. In that role, it has been instrumental in developing new technologies ranging from rocket engines to aircraft control systems.

Part of that role is running the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) campaign to test autonomous drone technology. The latest milestone in that campaign was testing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) helicopter intended for eventual use as an air taxi.

The testing, which runs through September 10 utilizes a yet-to-be-named eVTOL craft from a company called Joby, which has been developing the technology with NASA for over 10 years. The aircraft, which looks like a large version of a 6-rotor drone, will perform flight tests at Joby’s Electric Flight Base, near Big Sur in California.

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Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines.

The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in today’s edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilize lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batteries.

“In less than a decade, this technology could lead to vehicles including electric busses and trucks that can travel from Melbourne to Sydney without recharging. It could also enable innovation in delivery and agricultural drones where light weight is paramount,” says lead author Professor Mainak Majumder, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the Monash Energy Institute.

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These brightly colored robotic boats seem to have a death wish.

The brightly-colored robotic boats made by Saildrone seem to have a death wish.

Saildrone makes autonomous ocean vessels to study the environment. This summer, the Silicon Valley startup sent five of its vessels directly into the path of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. While airplanes can fly through hurricanes, the screaming winds kick up such huge waves that attempting to sail boats right into them is something best to be avoided.

Saildrone’s vessels are uncrewed, and built to survive hurricane winds and huge waves. Scientists are excited that the vessels could improve our understanding of how storms intensify.

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Japan says it has scrambled fighter aircraft to intercept Chinese military drones and accompanying surveillance aircraft on three consecutive days this week as its defense forces took part in a series of readiness exercises with regional allies.

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All the way back in the 1940s, in Switzerland, work was underway on a breakthrough Bus that would be pure electric, and not need batteries. Introducing the Gyro-bus, a innovative look at storing energy in a flywheel! Mechanical Energy storage baby, and we’re doing a deep dive this week on Two Bit da Vinci!

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This insane bus was pure ELECTRIC & didn’t need batteries.

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War has been a part of the human experience since the beginning of civilization. But new technologies are changing the face of warfare in ways that we never really expected. From cyberwarfare to autonomous AI-piloted drones to space warfare, the future of war is weird. And terrifying.

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Is this the Air Force’s new top secret stealth drone?

A mysterious aircraft caught flying over the Philippines could be the United State’s ultra-secret new RQ-180 stealth drone, aviation experts believe.

Local landscape photographer Michael Fugnit captured the craft on Thursday when he was attempting to take pictures of the sunrise by the coast of Santa Magdalena, a resort town 364 miles south of Manila.

Fugnit regularly watches the skies for planes, and quickly realized that the batwing-shaped flyer was unlike any commercial or military aircraft he’d ever seen before.

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