Drone racing takes to the Sky with $1m investment. The satellite broadcaster is making the investment in the Drone Racing League (DRL) to bring competitive flying to its new Sky Sports Mix channel. The league specialises in "first person-view" drone racing, which features pilots flying custom drones through complex three-dimensional racecourses. One of the first events will be the DRL 2016 world championship.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37360753
The Drone Racing League and ESPN have reached an agreement for the network to broadcast the first full season of the upstart organization, it was announced Wednesday. ESPN will air 10 one-hour episodes beginning with a viewer's guide to drone racing, airing Thursday night on ESPN2 and concluding with the DRL World Championship on Nov. 20. The elite pilots fly quadcopter drones at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, with the goal of collecting the most points.
http://www.espn.com/moresports/story/_/id/17544727/drone-racing-league-espn-announce-broadcasting-agreement
Fatal Germany airshow plane crash leaves two dead after aircraft collision. The pilots were operating a microlight and a glider respectively at an airshow in Erzgebirge, east Germany. Initial reports indicate that one of the aircrafts managed to land safely. The other aircraft crashed, reportedly killing a father and daughter.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/fatal-germany-airshow-plane-crash-8806612
NASA Spy Drone catches tropical storm turning into a hurricane. The surveillance drones, America’s largest, fly in the calmer altitudes of around 60,000 feet above the ground, where they can wait for over a day, cameras pointed down, watching. The same characteristics that make a Global Hawk a useful tool of war against insurgents also lend its power as a storm watcher. NASA has a Global Hawk, painted bright white and not Air Force gray--and last week it flew over a tropical storm Gaston, determining it was, in fact, a hurricane.
http://www.popsci.com/global-hawk-catches-tropical-storm-turning-into-hurricane?con=TrueAnthem&dom=tw&src=SOC&utm_campaign=&utm_content=57c6111d04d3013728c292d4&utm_medium=&utm_source=
How drones are revolutionizing environmental science
Drones are revolutionizing research - and shares stunning aerial photos. They take pictures and video footage in remote places from above, providing their operator with a stunning view. Karen Joyce, an environmental scientist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, is using the drones to discover the marine ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. DW asked her to explain how the flying robots revolutionized her work.
http://www.dw.com/en/how-drones-are-revolutionizing-environmental-science/a-19515857
Dozens of pilots, many of whom have been racing quadcopters and flying wings for just a year or two, tested their skills against one another on a twisting obstacle course built on Governors Island in New York to decide who is the fastest drone pilot in the country. A $50,000 purse was up for grabs at the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships. This was officially the second national championships in drone racing and was held on the first weekend in August. Dozens of competitors, hundreds of spectators, and a potential audience of thousands watching then or later via internet took it all in.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/august/25/drones-race-for-dollars
Pentagon report details military UAVs, future of AI warfare. The United States needs to prepare for artificial intelligence in warfare. The report operated under the idea that autonomous weapons capabilities were going to be developed eventually, and that the United States needs to avoid an AI Cold War. There is a recommendation for a “minefield of autonomous lethal UAVs,” which could prevent unwanted incursion into American-held zones either on the land or underwater. These would be designed to be “cascaded,” or to deploy smaller autonomated weapons in order to control specific areas. As of 2014, the U.S. military employed almost 10,000 unmanned aerial systems.
https://www.pddnet.com/news/2016/08/pentagon-report-details-military-uavs-future-ai-warfare
Drone footage offers aerial view of areas affected by the Earthquake in Italy. A magnitude-6.2 earthquake hit central Italy early Wednesday and rescuers are searching for survivors. At least 247 people have now been killed in Wednesday's central Italy earthquake, the country's Civil Protection Department says.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/23/europe/italy-earthquake-live-blog/index.html?sr=twCNN082416/italy-earthquake-live-blog0338PMStoryLink&linkId=28005657
Tackling the European refugee crisis with solar-powered UAVs: A fully autonomous 26 hour search-and-rescue flight. One year after having demonstrated the 81-hour continuous solar-powered flight that is still the current world record in flight endurance for all aircrafts < 50kg total mass, the AtlantikSolar UAV has completed its next milestone by demonstrating the first-ever fully autonomous (from launch to landing) solar-powered perpetual flight with significant payload in a 26-hour Search-and-Rescue (SaR) mission.
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has released a request for proposals (RfP) to contract unmanned air vehicle services for coastal monitoring across the European Union. Three classes of UAV are being sought, with bids to be placed by 17 October ahead of a contract award in the third quarter of 2016, the 10 August tender document indicates.
Nebraska cornfields become new frontiers for drone storytelling. Over the course of three days, more than 60 journalists and media professionals explored issues of weather, safety, ethics, constitutional rights, regulations and more. Matt Waite, a pioneering drone journalist who teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications, led exhaustive but critical sessions about how to prepare for the Federal Aviation Administration test required for journalists who want to fly drones for commercial purposes.
http://current.org/2016/08/nebraska-cornfields-become-new-frontiers-for-drone-storytelling/
The US Air Force is doing everything it can to recruit and keep drone pilots, and now it's resorting to a very direct solution: cold, hard cash. The military branch is offering $10,000 more per year in bonuses to those pilots who renew their active duty commitment for 5 years. They were already getting a hefty $25,000 extra per year, but this is a huge incentive - if a pilot is active for the full term, that's a total of $175,000 above and beyond their usual pay.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/15/air-force-boosts-drone-pilot-bonuses-to-keep-up-with-demand/
Government, aerospace industry and academic experts across the country will converge in Dayton to share their visions of the future of drones. The two-day Unmanned Aerial Systems Midwest conference will launch Tuesday at the Dayton Convention Center. Organizers expect hundreds of attendees at the gathering, formerly called UAS Ohio and started in 2012. The name change was meant to broaden the conference’s reach and attract more states as it competes with more places that organize industry conventions, McDonald said.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/drone-conference-coming-to-dayton-this-week/nsFS4/
Tiny drones for urban warfare are among the projects that could soon be funded under an £800 million injection into UK military technology research. The new innovation and research insights (IRIS) unit is meant to breathe fresh life into military tech research and help the UK compete with other nations’ equipment and weapons. Among the projects which may be funded are tiny dragonfly drones – so named for their distinctive wings – which can be used for urban warfare, and a quantum gravimeter, which would be used on board drones to scan through walls and even underground, aiding with mapping. The military is also looking at developing laser weapons and reinvigorating the Royal Navy’s main drone development program for the Scan Eagle vehicle.
https://www.rt.com/uk/355653-military-fund-dragonfly-drones/
Disney is preparing to take its world famous entertainment to the skies. Earlier this month, the theme parks giant was granted a patent for projector drones—flying machines with the ability to beam images onto attached screens—or building faces—that would be used at night to enchant guests. According to the concept detailed in the patent, the drone is strong enough to carry the weight of a full-sized projector capable of showcasing both still and moving images. The device holds a screen that runs parallel to the ground, as the projector beams an image onto the rear surface reflectively. To prevent wind gusts from bringing the machine down, the patent suggests the screen be made from “a mesh sheet with a porosity allowing air to flow through.”
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2016/08/09/is-disney-planning-to-dazzle-guests-with-projector-drones.html
NASA has selected five green technology concepts that have the potential to transform the aviation industry in the next decade by reducing aircraft fuel use and emissions. The concepts were selected under NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program for a two-year study. The topics, including three specifically targeted at electrically-propelled aircraft are: alternative fuel cells; 3-D printing to increase electric motor output; the use of lithium-air batteries for energy storage; new mechanisms for changing the shape of an aircraft wing in flight; the use of a lightweight material called aerogel in the design and development of aircraft antenna.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-charges-toward-greener-aviation-with-novel-concepts
The SABRE engine is designed to use jet propulsion to power an aircraft from standing to five times the speed of sound in the atmosphere. The engine then switches to rocket mode, which could push it to speeds of Mach 25 – nearly 20,000 miles per hour – easily enough to get into orbit. Such systems are technically possible, but the amount of oxygen needed for fuel would make such an aircraft impossibly heavy. Instead, SABRE sucks the oxygen it needs from the atmosphere and uses it on-the-spot, with technology that has so far worked as specified.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/sabre_hybrid_rocket_engine_ready_in_2020/
An Emirates plane has crash-landed at Dubai International Airport. All 300 people on board were able to escape from the burning aircraft. The plane appeared to have landed on its belly, and images showed thick black smoke rising into the sky. The cause of the incident is not known. The Boeing 777 was flying to Dubai from the southern Indian state of Kerala. It said all departures and arrivals from the airport have been suspended until further notice.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36963112
Saving animals from extinction sometimes requires innovative solutions from the conservation community. At least some of those answers will come from the sky. Thanks to a collaboration between ecologist Lian Pin Koh and primatologist Serge Wich, drone technology could advance the fight to save orangutans and other endangered wildlife populations in Asia. Drones allowed them to gather images beneath the frequent cloud cover that blankets the rainforest, as well as track which areas of the forests were being logged or burned.
Intended to provide backup power for the newest A350 jetliners, lithium batteries are more powerful, lighter and require less maintenance. Escalating arguments about the extent of safeguards and testing for such rechargeable batteries—reminiscent of Boeing Co.’s difficulties with similar technology years ago—come after European regulators already have approved the Airbus systems based on less-stringent requirements.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/airbus-faa-spar-over-lithium-batteries-1469611983