Collaborating Authors

China is building drone planes for its aircraft carriers

Popular Science

While China's two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the nearly completed CV-17, have ski ramps that would likely limit them to vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones, the next Chinese carrier, CV-18, will likely have electromagnetic catapults. Those catapults would enable CV-18 and its nuclear-powered successors to launch heavier and faster drones propelled by turbofan engines. It's likely the drones Shi mentions will be sophisticated, heavier versions of today's systems. The Lijian, for example, uses a flying wing body (just like the B-2 bomber and X-47B drone) and has two bomb bays that could accommodate 2 tons of artillery. A carrier variant would have reinforced landing gears and structures to handle the forces involved in catapult launch and assisted recovery.

US probe of drone collisions with aircraft points to birds


Investigations into reported collisions by drones with civil aircraft found that they were caused instead by birds, wires and posts, or structural failures unrelated to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a U.S. regulator said. There has been widespread concern about the risks that the flying of drones close to aircraft can pose, and the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that reports of "possible" drone sightings to FAA air traffic facilities continued to increase in fiscal year 2016. There were 1,274 such reports of drone sightings from February through September last year, compared with 874 for the same period in 2015, the FAA said in a statement. Some of these sightings could have also been of birds mistaken for drones, according to analysts. The agency added that although the data contained several reports of pilots claiming drone strikes on their aircraft, the FAA has not verified any collision between a civil aircraft and a civil drone to date.

Exclusive - Game of Drones: U.S. Poised to Boost Unmanned Aircraft Exports

U.S. News

Under a draft of the new rules, a classified list of countries numbering in double digits would be given more of a fast-track treatment for military drone purchases, a second senior official said. The favored group would include some of Washington's closest NATO allies and partners in the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance: Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to the industry source.

'Drone Or A Manned Aircraft' What Should You Opt For?


The evolution of drones has helped professionals, industrialists, scientists and researchers, to capture, survey, analyze and map a variety of spaces and places. Talking about the drones and the manned aircraft, the basic function revolves around which aircraft is to be used for the specific part of the project. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) have been referred to a disruptive technology because of their potential to replace expensive and time-consuming tasks. Drones are the best alternatives when it comes to capture information from large areas of land. Where to use manned aircraft and drone?

It Is A Federal Crime To Shoot Down A Drone, Says FAA

Popular Science

It is a federal crime to shoot down aircraft, and this week, the FAA confirm that that includes drones. This is great news for anyone who has a drone, and for anyone who doesn't want errant bullets falling from the sky, and it's bad news for anyone eager to pump a quadcopter full of lead. From Forbes' John Goglia, who confirmed this with the FAA: According to the FAA "regardless of the situation, shooting at any aircraft -- including unmanned aircraft -- poses a significant safety hazard.