unmanned aerial vehicle

Elroy Air tops $2B in purchase demand for Chaparral drone with LCI deal

Much attention has been directed toward Walmart, Amazon Prime Air and Alphabet subsidiary Wing’s forays into drone delivery — perhaps rightfully so given some of the things those companies have built in the past. But looking beyond drone delivery’s trio of titanic names, other firms are subtly carving out their own sizable presence in the space.

Take, for example, South San Francisco-based Elroy Air, which on Wednesday announced that it now has more than $2 billion worth of orders for Chaparral,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/elroy-air-tops-2b-in-purchase-demand-for-chaparral-drone-with-lci-deal

Report on Current, Future Pentagon Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Programs

The following is the April 13, 2022 Congressional Research Service report, Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Current and Potential Programs

From the report

Since the dawn of military aviation, the U.S. military has been interested in remotely piloted aircraft. Present-day unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) typically consist of an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) paired with a ground control station. UAS have become ubiquitous in U.S. military operations since the 1990s with the introduction of the MQ-1...

https://news.usni.org/2022/04/20/report-on-current-future-pentagon-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-programs

Logistics provider Flexport orders self-flying cargo jets

Rendering of a space-age cargo jet in the clouds.

Third-party logistics provider Flexport, flush with fresh investor funding, has tentatively ordered two large autonomous cargo jets with a 100-ton payload from startup aircraft manufacturer Natilus, part of a strategic effort to enhance customer service by directly controlling more transport capacity.

San Diego-based Natilus on Wednesday announced $6 billion in advance purchase commitments of more than 440 aircraft from Flexport plus Kenyan all-cargo airline Astral Aviation; Volatus Aerospace, a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/logistics-provider-flexport-orders-self-flying-cargo-jets

The Light Load: Raven-on-drone violence nothing to crow about

After suspending service following a series of terrifying raven attacks, Wing Aviation has resumed drone deliveries near Canberra, Australia, on the theory that the aggressive beasts’ hash is well and truly settled.

Per an ornithologist, the trouble was a couple of helicopter-parenting ravens that were rearing hatchlings nearby. The chicks now apparently having flown north, er, south for the winter — or summer (dang equator!) — the birdman told a news organization by the fun name DroneDJ that...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-light-load-raven-on-drone-violence-nothing-to-crow-about

In search of transformative tech, UP Partners looks to urban air mobility companies

The underlying technologies that are fueling the urban air mobility (UAM) sector are still in their infancy in many cases, but they will be the base upon which the future movement of people and goods depend. The ability of UAM providers to safely operate is also dependent on aircraft navigation systems that can track and guide drones and passenger craft.

It is a high-tech race to fund, develop and deploy the technologies that the future will be built upon.

“The future of high-scale drone and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/in-search-of-transformative-tech-up-partners-looks-to-urban-air-mobility-companies

Navy MQ-4 Triton Flying Operational Missions From Guam

Navy MQ-4C Triton taxis at Andersen Air Force Base on April 29, 2020. US Navy Photo

Almost three months after arriving in Guam, a pair of MQ-4C Triton autonomous, unmanned aircraft have integrated into fleet operations and training flights and stretched the Navy’s maritime domain awareness across the Indo-Pacific, according to the Navy.

The Navy is counting on the Triton, which can operate at greater than 50,000-foot altitudes and at the 2,000-mile-plus range, to provide an unmanned platform for...

https://news.usni.org/2020/05/12/navy-mq-4-triton-flying-operational-missions-from-guam

Navy Exercises $84.7 Million Option With Boeing For Three MQ-25A Stingrays

MQ-25 Stingray. Boeing Photo

The Navy exercised contract options with Boeing worth $84.7 million to buy three MQ-25A Stingray unmanned aerial refueling tankers as part of a modification to a previously awarded contract.

The three MQ-25s covered by the contract options are to be completed by August 2024, according to the contract announcement released by the Pentagon late Thursday.

For more than a decade, the Navy has conducted an on-again, off-again development process to build what will be the...

https://news.usni.org/2020/04/02/navy-exercises-84-7-million-option-with-boeing-for-three-mq-25a-stingrays

Navy’s First MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft Deploy To Guam

An MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) idles on a runway at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam after arriving for a deployment as part of an early operational capability (EOC) test. US Navy Photo

About a year later than initially expected, the first two MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft arrived in Guam over the weekend, marking a significant step toward increasing the Navy’s Western Pacific reconnaissance and surveillance capability, the service announced this weekend.

The two Tritons are part of...

https://news.usni.org/2020/01/27/navys-first-mq-4c-triton-unmanned-aircraft-deploy-to-guam

Report: Fight Against China Requires Navy to Field Modern Unmanned Eyes In The Sky

“A fleet without eyes cannot fight,” said Seth Cropsey, a senior fellow at the Washington think tank, quoting the maxim when discussing the report he co-authored, “If You Can’t See ‘Em, You Can’t Shoot ‘Em.”

The U.S. needs long-range and persistent eyes to provide intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting (ISR/T) “before conflict.” The rationale, Cropsey said, is that today Beijing “can concentrate forces” quickly to strike Taiwan or assert its will in the South China Sea using...

https://news.usni.org/2019/12/17/report-fight-against-china-requires-navy-to-field-modern-unmanned-eyes-in-the-sky

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