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These drone boats are the latest unmanned technology being tested by the U.S. Navy. WSJ's Shelby Holliday traveled to Bahrain to get a rare look at how the U.S. is pairing unmanned surface vessels with artificial intelligence to see "from seabed to space." Illustration: Adele Morgan

Two is better than one, and these US startups are combining the best of both worlds to build an entirely new, one-of-a-kind airplane that will revolutionize the industry.

The Past, Present & Future of Air Mobility

NASA researchers recently completed a full-scale crash test of an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) concept vehicle at the Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) facility at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Throughout 2022, NASA's held a series of tabletop discussions to determine how electric air taxis could be safely integrated into the national airspace, paving the way for passengers to eventually be able to travel quickly between cities via aerial highways.

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has announced the launch of its "Drone Prepared" multi-state initiative, which will help lawmakers to prepare for the future increase in drones in order to reap economic, environmental and workforce benefits.

The University of Delaware's Center for Composite Materials (CCM) hosted the Second Annual Review of the NASA University Leadership Initiative Composite Manufacturing Technologies for Aerospace Performance at Automotive Production Rates project. 

Proposed research authored by WSU-NIAR and Mississippi State Advanced Composites Institute offers techniques to identify, assess and understand composites and other materials use in aviation applications.  

Advanced Aircraft Company (AAC), a developer and manufacturer of distributed electric propulsion tilt-wing and multi-rotor uncrewed aircraft systems for defense applications, today announced it has been selected by AFWERX for an SBIR Phase II contract focused on the further development to investigate its potential to fill capability gaps in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).  This contract will enable AAC to continue the development of its highly versatile Hybrid Advanced Multi-Rotor (HAMR) Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) for the United States Air Force. 

In order for the FAA to maintain the safety of the NAS and accommodate new types of UAS operations, it is important to monitor the effectiveness of existing UAS regulations and forecast future UAS integration needs. Using detection data, first of its kind, this research will provide data to support those needs by analyzing sUAS traffic at several urban locations across the NAS

The oddly satisfying small domes that you press on your soda's to-go cup lid may one day save a winged drone from a nosedive.
Patterns of these invertible domes on a drone's wings would give it a way to remember in microseconds what dangerous conditions feel like and react quickly. The study, conducted by researchers at Purdue University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is among the first demonstrations of a metamaterial that uses its shape to learn how to adapt to its surroundings on its own. The paper is published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems. Please click here to read the paper. 

Southeastern Oklahoma State University's aviation program were hard to reach recently because they were traveling to Florida to pick up a new plane as the university expands its training program to meet future aerospace demands.

Drones and similar small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) have seen a massive surge in popularity over the past few years due to their innovative applications, such as crop monitoring, search and rescue operations, and coast profiling. The potential of sUAVs in atmospheric science and meteorology has not gone unnoticed either as drones offer an efficient way to place various kinds of sensors up above in the lower atmosphere.

It's one of the conundrums of the drone industry: autonomy is necessary to maximize the benefits of uncrewed systems.  Anyone who has watched a science fiction movie or read the news, however, understands that a high level of autonomy comes with a level of risk: risk that the decisions made by a computer may, someday, be incorrect.
That was the topic of a session at the AUVSI NE UAS and AAM Summit October 26.

The support challenges – from design through to production, operation and maintenance – that await organizations looking to enter or further entrench themselves in a high-growth industry.

NUAIR Secures FAA Approval for 50 Mile BVLOS Flight Corridor

The NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is studying how electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft operate and interact with an electric-propulsion system as several of these aircraft move toward certification.

Leaders and community members were on hand 20 miles west of Fargo near Casselton, North Dakota, today as ground was officially broken on the 140 acre site of Grand Farm's Innovation Facility. 
Grand Farm, an organization that facilitates agriculture technology collaboration and research, will utilize the new facility to bring together researchers, growers, industry, startups, and government to ideate and execute on innovations to solve some of the world's largest challenges in agriculture.

NASA researchers are making progress with developing an innovative battery pack that is lighter, safer, and performs better than batteries commonly used in vehicles and large electronics today.

The blacklisting provides a path for President Biden to sanction DJI and 12 other Chinese companies. It follows in the footsteps of last year's US Treasury Department ban on US-based persons from trading shares of DJI.

Donation marks the largest academic gift in university history

The $1.2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract will provide funding for VerdeGo to perform advanced risk reduction on the VH-3-185 hybrid powerplant, which has applications to both military and commercial high-performance electric aircraft.

COPTRZ Ltd, have launched their new drone learning experience platform (LXP) platform COPTRZ ACADEMY. COPTRZ claim that this is the leading platform of its type anywhere in the World.

With the Pacific Air Show in Southern California this weekend, here's a look at some aviation projects NASA is developing.

Drones are becoming more and more a part of our lives. We see them everywhere. It's also the wave of the future when it comes to careers. 

OSU Launches Counter-UAS Center of Excellence, Forms Partnership Agreement to Support Department of Homeland Security

New center and partnership agreement position OSU as the preferred aerospace defense provider for Fort Sill

Drone research at New Mexico State University will continue to soar after the Federal Aviation Administration last week awarded a $400,000 grant to the university's Physical Science Laboratory. The money will support the development of unmanned aircraft systems that can respond to emergencies or prepare for disasters

School is back in session, and DriveOhio has partnered with the Mastery School of Hawken in northeast Ohio to kick off its latest Vertiport Innovation Challenge. Using Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills, students will focus on identifying an opportunity to implement advanced air mobility in their community.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and the Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW), funded by the National Science Foundation and a consortium of industry partners, have announced a collaboration on advancing the use of 5G for drone operations in support of smart agriculture.

Pilots and researchers from NASA began conducting research flights with the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft, or SARA, in March. The system uses Sikorsky's MATRIX Technology that is designed to enable operators to autonomously fly any aircraft, or to fly an aircraft as an optionally piloted vehicle. 

TruWeather Solutions (TWS), a Northern Virginia based company, has been awarded and is at the inception of a NASA funded Phase II (750,000) SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract for Urban Weather Sensing Infrastructure Testbed in Hampton, Virginia.

The University of North Dakota's John D. Odergard School of Aerospace Sciences (UND) has received additional funding from ASSURE for continued research into Right of Way rules using technologies associated with autonomous flight.

Oklahoma State University's Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE) has received two federal grants to expand its reach and impact in the development of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).

The NAAMCE will feature a two-story, 30,000ft2 office building to house administrative, laboratory, meeting, and collaboration space, with 25,000ft2 of aircraft hangar space available for use by the U.S. Air Force and private industry. The center will support the expanding work of manufacturers and operators of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for advanced air mobility (AAM).

NASA Langley Research Center held a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 17 to mark the beginning of construction on its new vertical wind tunnel, the Flight Dynamics Research Facility (FDRF).

Virginia Tech has won its sixth major federal contract to lead research on an increasingly urgent question: How to safely manage drone traffic.