European aviation and aerospace giant Airbus has announced its expansion in the booming security and defense UAV sector with the acquisition of US tech company Aerovel, maker of the innovative Flexrotor intelligence and reconnaissance data collection drone.
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The future of autonomous piloting has come at least two steps nearer with news that two breakthrough trial flights were completed by different aviation tech companies – including one whose systems permitted a cargo plane to fly with nobody in the cockpit.
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Were there any doubt remaining about how the war in Ukraine has transformed the way drones are deployed – and how manufacturers now view military applications as the most lucrative area in the sector – Airbus provided compelling evidence by founding a new US unit dedicated to creating UAVs designed for martial applications in the bustling business activity.
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Airbus has remarkable success in developing its record-shattering Zephyr high-altitude platform system (HAPS), but now the European aviation giant is now looking to bring in outside investors to help take the solar-powered drone to market.
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Armed forces in much of the world are developing small, uncrewed aerial assets to assist larger aircraft in military operation – including combat situations. European aviation giant Airbus is similarly working on what it calls Remote Carrier drones, and this month successfully tested them in two different scenarios.
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European aircraft and aerospace giant Airbus says it successfully tested a small-scale demonstration version of its future “cargo copter” drone, which is designed to transport 250 kg of payload across a maximum range of just over 300 kilometers.
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Aviation giant Airbus is expanding its efforts to develop advanced air mobility (AAM) and air taxi services with a project to prepare operation of its CityAirbus NextGen electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) craft in Japan.
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France’s military has announced certification of the Airbus Aliaca maritime reconnaissance, monitoring, and data collection “mini-drone” – a somewhat approximate description of a UAV with a 2.2-meter wingspan and payload capacity of 16 kgs that will soon be accompanying French Navy vessels.
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So close, but in the end, no superlative cigar. After 64 straight days of solar-powered flight, the US Army’s Airbus-built Zephyr UAV reportedly plunged from the skies over Arizona, just hours shy of breaking the all-time record for continuous navigation by an aircraft.
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There’s no longer any question about whether the US Army’s experimental flight of the solar-powered Zephyr UAV will break the aerial endurance record, only by how much the craft will shatter that mark with each additional day it remains aloft.
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European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is teaming up with Munich Airport International in a project to offer a full range of advanced air mobility (AAM) solutions – from electric vertical takeoff and landing craft (eVTOL) to vertiport infrastructure – to cities and regions around the globe looking to develop looming next-generation aircraft services like air taxis.
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Airbus has announced its Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude platform system (HAPS) drone has completed a barrage of summer tests in Arizona, including what the European aviation consortium described as a record-setting 36 days of flight time spread over a two-day mission.
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Aviation giant Airbus and two Israeli companies have been tasked with tracking down migrants trying to enter Europe via the Mediterranean with drones. The companies will be paid €100 million or about $118 million.
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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released its final report on the Airbus Zephyr drone that fell from the sky due to unstable weather near Wyndham Airport, Western Australia. The drone appears to have experienced a series of uncommanded turns, causing it to break apart mid-flight.
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brigkAIR and Airbus have announced their Deep Drone Challenge for the public with up to €50,000 ($60,000) in prize money and professional mentorship. If you are at least 18 years old and live in Germany, you can attend whether you’re a student, professional, hobbyist, or inventor.
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In an effort to combine the practicality of an airplane with the endurance of a satellite, Airbus has developed the Zephyr, a drone that flies at extremely high altitudes and is powered 100% by solar energy. There are two different variations of the aircraft: Zephyr S, a smaller aircraft that is already in production, and the Zephyr T, a larger scale version that is still in development.
Airbus, a French company, has its eyes set on the unmanned aerial vehicle market with their Zephyr high altitude drone. You may be familiar with Airbus as a company who develops passenger aircraft, like the A380 that was recently captured by a drone while taking off, commercial jets, and even helicopters. Their goal is entirely different with this project as the Zephyr S and Zephyr T offer a wide range of possibilities.
Check out this video! Somebody thought it was a great idea to fly his drone right next to an airport runway to record airplanes taking off. Not just any airplane. No, big ones. Like this Airbus A380 that can carry up to 525 people and that just took off from Mauritius Island in the Indian Ocean. I mean, seriously…
Yesterday the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the 10 pilot programmes that have been approved under President Trump’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program (UAS IPP) in an effort to bring the country up to speed when it comes to drone experimentation. Yesterday we published the list of awardees and today we are reporting on the companies that made the list such as Airbus, Alphabet (Google), Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, FedEx, Uber, and others. As well as the ones that did not make the list, most notably Amazon and DJI.
This week at the MRO Americas, Airbus revealed their new Advanced Inspection Drone. This fully autonomous drone speeds up the visual inspection process of aircraft when they are parked inside a hangar. A laser-based obstacle detection sensor, flight planner software, and an Airbus’ aircraft inspection software analysis tool allows the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to perform the entire inspection automatically. This new drone-based process reduces the aircraft downtime drastically, and it improves the quality of the inspection itself.
Lawmakers in Berlin could soon approve the deployment of armed drone for the Bundeswehr. German defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen is to forward a €25 million EUR ($30.7 million USD) placeholder petition to the defense committees for a program to lease a number of Heron-TP drones from Israel. The entire contract is valued at around €1 billion EUR.
Singapore wants in on the rapidly developing drone industry. The areas of interest are the driverless cars, delivery drone, and drone-taxis. Like Dubai, Singapore is interested in transforming the way good and products are moving around the city. Airbus is also testing drone-taxis, as we reported on before.
BBC News just reported that an Airbus 319 narrowly missed a large drone while approaching Gatwick Airport. A UK Airprox Board report revealed that 130 lives were at risk when a large diameter drone passed directly over the wing, in between the wingtip and the fuselage. An “airprox” is when distances between aircraft are seen to compromise safety. The incident happened on July 9th when a drone was “flown into conflict” with the Airbus 319. According to the report, there had been a high chance of collision.
CityAirbus, chief engineer Marius Bebesel confirmed this week that Airbus expects to have the flying taxi in the air in 2018, after successfully completing ground tests of the electric power system that they will use to propel the vehicle through the air.
