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Category: drones – Page 67

China shows off its Mars cruise drone prototype

China has shown off the prototype of its “Mars cruise drone” designed for surveillance work on future Mars missions, following the historic landing of a robotic rover on the Red Planet a few months ago.

The prototype of the miniature helicopter successfully passed the final acceptance, China’s National Space Science Center (CNNSC) announced on Wednesday. In the images shared by the science center, the prototype looks similar in appearance to NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, developed for its Perseverance mission this year.

The Chinese prototype sports two rotor blades, a sensor-and-camera base, and four thin legs, but there is no solar panel at the top like Ingenuity.

Wing says drone deliveries are taking off madly where they’re allowed

Drone delivery technology is ready to rock, says Alphabet’s Wing spinoff, ushering in a wild new era in which small deliveries can touch down within minutes of being ordered, traveling across town at highway speeds. The only holdup at this stage is red tape, and in the few places where that’s been cleared away – like the Australian city of Logan, Queensland – drone deliveries are already proving very popular.

Wing says it’s already made a whopping 50,000 deliveries in Logan, where it kicked off activities in2019through its own app and service, flying out coffees, snack packs, BBQ chickens, sushi rolls, hardware items and a range of other small packages on demand. Eleven local business are acting as suppliers at this point.

That volume, says the company, makes Logan the world’s drone delivery capital. Or at least, the world’s legal drone delivery capital, anyway. Operations in Christiansburg, Virginia, as well as Helsinki, Finland and Canberra, Australia, have kicked in a further 50,000 deliveries between them, and Wing says demand for the super-fast delivery service is growing at an impressive rate wherever it’s made available. The company tells us that deliveries grew by 500 percent from2019to 2,020 and that in Q22021it made more deliveries than in all of 2020.

Turkey to Add More Advanced Drone to Fleet That Has Swung Wars

‘’Baykar says the Akinci, Turkish for “raider,” can attack targets in the air and on the ground, and operate alongside fighter jets, flying higher and staying in the air longer than Turkey’s existing pilotless planes. The drones will carry a range of missiles developed by Turkey’s Roketsan.’’

relates to Hospitals in U.S. South Run Low on Oxygen Amid Covid, Storm

Hospitals in U.S. South Run Low on Oxygen Amid Covid, Storm.

DRONERESPONDERS global public safety drone map now exceeds 900 agencies

As first responders continue to embrace drones for emergency missions across the globe, a new map dashboard hopes to facilitate communication, coordination, and collaboration between various public safety agencies. This free, interactive global map and directory of emergency services drone programs is now home to over 900 agencies from more than 20 countries – and the numbers are rising steadily.

Not only is the initiative being welcomed by the community but it has also started showing results, too. As Charles Werner, director of DRONERESPONDERS, explains:

Did Chinese scientists just bring down an unmanned plane with an electromagnetic pulse weapon?

Can this be true?

An unmanned aircraft was brought down by a powerful electromagnetic pulse in what could be the first reported test of an advanced new weapon in China.

A paper published in the Chinese journal Electronic Information Warfare Technology did not give details of the timing and location of the experiment, which are classified but it may be the country’s first openly reported field test of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

China is racing to catch up in the field after the US demonstrated a prototype EMP weapon that brought down 50 drones with one shot in 2019.

US Army develops new laser weapon to fry drone, artillery threats away

Oh, the ways armed forces around the world are working to blast uncrewed aerial vehicles they don’t like. Now the US Army is at that again, putting the finishing touches on a laser weapon that can not only destroy the innards of drones as they fly, but also drop incoming artillery as well.

The Army says it will be mounting the first four field versions of the DE M-SHORAD system on armored vehicles sometime next year, and has added the program to its expanding range of weapons against uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) being developed.

Alphabet’s drones delivered 10,000 cups of coffee and 1,200 roast chickens in the last year

Alphabet’s Wing drone company allows users to order items such as food through a mobile app and is fast approaching 100,000 deliveries since its launch.

Alphabet’s drone company Wing delivered 10,000 cups of coffee, 1,700 snack packs and 1,200 roast chickens to customers in Logan, Australia, over the last year, the company said Wednesday in a blog post outlining its progress.

Wing was initially launched in 2019 in Australia, following a series of drone tests that began in 2014. The service, which was initially part of Alphabet’s experimental research division, allows users to order items such as food through a mobile app and is fast approaching 100,000 deliveries since its launch.

Wing hopes to one day deliver products to people all over the world without having to rely on drivers or delivery trucks like other companies. It’s the reason UPS, Uber and Amazon are also working on drone delivery.

Envoy Air passenger plane hits drone after Chicago takeoff

It seems we have another accident involving a drone.

An Envoy Air passenger plane reported striking a drone while departing Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Sunday, in what is the just most recent incident of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) endangering commercial craft in restricted airspaces around the globe.

“Departure, Envoy 3,961 we just hit something,” a crew member is heard saying. “I believe we hit a drone about 30 seconds ago. We’d like to return to O’Hare.”