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Today, weather intelligence and technology company Meteomatics launched its first U.S. Meteodrone autonomous flight system at North Dakota's GrandSKY aviation park.

3D printing typically involves a single machine creating an object. But a team of undergraduate researchers has taken that paradigm far outside its box in the Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing (DREAMS) Lab, led by L.S. Randolph Professor Chris Williams.

Continually I am told that the age of electric-powered aircraft is nigh.

WindShape, a trailblazing Swiss company established in 2016, has been revolutionizing the drone industry through research, development, testing, inspection, certification, and validation. In an ambitious effort to extend its global presence, WindShape is announcing a strategic partnership with the Osage tribal nation, to open a cutting-edge indoor drone testing and validation facility at the Skyway36 Droneport and Technology Innovation Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

To help current and prospective students discover the benefits of drone technology, the University of Arkansas is hosting a drone demonstration near the Agricultural Park off Garland Avenue, just north of the university, on Wednesday, April 26.

AFWERX will highlight emerging aircraft technologies during the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International XPONENTIAL 2023 convention May 8-11, 2023, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Oklahoma aerospace engineers told members of a U.S. House high tech committee that they are using drone technology and advanced air mobility to leverage aerospace programs within the state's Native American tribes.

WindShape, a Swiss-based company operating in the drone industry, will open an indoor drone testing and validation operation at the Skyway36 Droneport and Technology Innovation Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has entered into a Space Act agreement with the federal space agency to collaborate on initiatives to plan the next generation of flight within the complex airspace of the Port District, according to the company's release.

Aviation is changing thanks to the emergence of new types of manned and unmanned aircraft. NASA's Advanced Air Mobility Mission seeks, in its words, to help emerging aviation markets operate safely. The program pulls in many public and private partners. Joining the Federal Drive with a flyover view, NASA research and test pilot Gerrit Everson.

Oklahoma aerospace engineers told members of a U.S. House high tech committee that they are using drone technology and advanced air mobility to leverage aerospace programs within the state's Native American tribes.

Oklahoma State University's Dr. Jamey Jacob testified at the Capitol before the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on March 23 in Washington, D.C., highlighting the need for continued investment in drone research for the benefit of national defense, technology development and the public good. 

Oklahoma aerospace engineers told members of a U.S. House high tech committee that they are using drone technology and advanced air mobility to leverage aerospace programs within the state's Native American tribes.

Technical challenges for alternative energy aircraft are daunting. Urban Air Mobility, Advanced Air Mobility, eVTOLs, batteries, hydrogen, hybrids—this list goes on.

A U.S. House hearing held last week on the topic of advanced air mobility featured a discussion of the future of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, in the United States. It also served as a legislative hearing for The National Drone and Advanced Air Mobility Act. This is a bill that would enable a coordinated Federal initiative to accelerate civilian UAS operations. The act would also support research and development related to advanced air mobility (AAM).

In just a few years, you may be able to hop in an air taxi that'll take you 100 miles in under an hour, and the Valley is positioned to be at the forefront of this possible revolution in urban air travel.

NASA has selected four teams of university faculty and students to solve key challenges facing the future of air travel as part of the agency's University Leadership Initiative.

Maker of both hybrid and entirely electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) airplanes, Horizon Aircraft has revealed research on what backers of new craft development expect in the early phases of operation, which ranks much-anticipated air taxi services surprisingly low on that list.

The NSF-funded conference on Friday will explore how laws could lift or ground the use of autonomous, uncrewed aircraft to move people and goods.

The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board aims to complete four studies in 2023, with two focused on a couple of Secretary Frank Kendall's operational imperatives. 

Companies offer emerging technology solutions for the urban air mobility market.

The Army is on the hunt for air-ground robotic and autonomous systems, voice-guided technology and other capabilities as part of its second tech assessment event. 

NASA's Ames Research Center will leverage NextNav's TerraPoiNT commercial grade network to capture inflight data on drone navigation, detection and collision avoidance as part of BVLOS testing for its urban air mobility (UAM) program.

Funded in part by a grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the infrastructure test platform will support research projects in mobility technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous ground vehicles, mobile edge computing, public safety communications, and more.

There are seven FAA designated UAS Test Sites across the United States but only one features a 50-mile uncrewed aircraft systems corridor, where various tests can be performed to determine the operational and economic viability of a given drone operation in the short and long term. Managed by the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) at the Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York, operators can fly 50 miles without visual observers. This setup enables drone testing of all different types, which is further augmented by all of the existing infrastructure within the corridor.

A diverse set of robust facilities and capabilities that are likely to make major contributions to drone, eVTOL aircraft development, refinement of concepts of operations and airspace allocation over the next decade are based in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area on the east coast of the USA. The area hosts an eclectic mix of independent entities often working in partnership.

Five years ago, Google backed away from a Pentagon government contract because thousands of employees protested that its tech might be used for lethal drone targeting. Today, however, Silicon Valley has far fewer qualms about developing tech for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Ohio University has been awarded a grant to investigate using unmanned aircraft in Appalachian Ohio for applications such as delivering packages to homes and transporting patients to hospitals and travelers to airports.

From scientific research, firefighting and rainmaking to energy-saving airborne deliveries, more sustainable agriculture and renewable energy, unmanned systems are enabling the shift to a green economy.

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