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Submission + - DARPA release requirements for drone launching drone submarine Hydra (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: Hydra aims to develop a distributed undersea network of UUVs and UAVs able to operate independently for weeks or months at a time to complement manned ships, submarines, and aircraft as an alternate means of delivering various capabilities above, on, and below the ocean’s surface.

The UAV payload will feature encapsulated air vehicles that fit into the standard Hydra modular enclosure. The air vehicle payload that will be ejected from the mothership, float to the surface, launch, fly a minimum range, and conduct several different types of missions.

Undersea payloads will launch, dock, and recharge from the mothership and collect intelligence information. After their missions they will download information to the mothership, which will communicate it to command authorities.

Submission + - Drone crashes into Virginia Bull Run crowd (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: Online forums suggest that there were actually three different operators flying at the recent Bull Run incident. Among them Digital Thunderdome, who apparently were not flying the incident aircraft but another lofting a Red Epic.

Flight over crowds should never occur and cannot be considered safe practice.

Earlier this year whilst filming in London for the UK version of the X Factor TV show a similar incident took place and was subject to a CAA safety notice. Unlike the UK, Europe, Canada and Australia the USA does not have regulations or safety systems in place for commercial civil UA operations. According to an FAA representative speaking to Patrick Egan of sUAS News at the recent AUVSI conference rules are due for public release and comment before 2013 is out.

Comment Re:Google Fiber bitches (Score 1) 290

Only good thing.

Negative.

You can't swing a cat in KC without finding BBQ that's better than that found in much the country Westward. (And I mean better executed... if you're fond of dry rub or Carolina BBQ then you may respectfully disagree on aesthetics.)

Teh Blues. Lots of good music in KC, mostly gravitating towards the intersection of Blues and Jazz.

If you're driving X-Country on Interstate 70, plan an overnight stop in downtown KC and then go find a KC Masterpiece restaurant and a blues club to visit afterwards.

Submission + - Drone rules for Burning Man established. (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: Participants flying unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, RC airplanes, etc.) have developed a set of best practices for flying at Black Rock City this year.

The best practices came out of a July 17“Drone Summit” at Burning Man headquarters that had 40 in attendance and an estimated 100 on a teleconference. Burning Man organizers arranged the summit following participant complaints from BM2012 that included UAVs flying over crowds at the Man burn, one UAV flying at the Temple burn, and a concern that UAVs with cameras were invading peoples’ privacy.

Submission + - Solar powered drone flies for more than nine hours (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: AeroVironment, Inc. today announced that a recent outdoor test flight of a solar-powered prototype version of the company’s proven Puma AE small unmanned aircraft system (UAS), operating with the company’s newest long-endurance battery, lasted 9 hours, 11 minutes – significantly longer than the flight endurance of small UAS being used in the field today.

Comment Re:Great! (Score 1) 160

1. What makes you think they would stop at 60m?
2. What makes you think they would not collectively accumulate a lot more?

By your logic:

- One should never share one's M&Ms, because what makes you think the other person won't take the whole bag?
- One should never bathe, because what makes you think you won't fall in and drown?
- One should never, ever receive fellatio, because what makes you think she won't swallow you whole?

Comment Re:Great! (Score 2) 160

And if it were a sphere of neutronium only 60m diameter, I suspect it wouldn't remain neutronium for very long either.

My first guess is that if such an object somehow blinked into existence, it would instantly become a rapidly expanding sphere of plasma and gamma rays.

Submission + - Worlds first flying 3D printer (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: Working with Deezmaker 3d print shop and manufacturer of the new Bukito miniature printer Multirotor designers Velocity Pigeon lifted the printer with their their new VPAS 8 Octocopter. The VPAS 8 has been tested with up to 3.1kg of cargo and plans for you to 3D print your own VPAS 8 will be released soon. Its a bit of a work in progress at the moment.

Submission + - Chinese drones arrive in Washington (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: The exhibitor displaying their UAV systems is the company Hubei Ewatt Technology Co., LTD., located in Wuhan China. Ewatt is one of the largest suppliers of imported equipment to the Chinese State Power Electrical Grid. Ewatt entered the UAV business to fill a need that the State Power Grid has for a more safe means of power-line inspections, which lead them to develop their first UAV systems.

Ewatt founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Zhao Guocheng will attend the show with 4 other company executives that will help man the display. One of these Ewatt company officers is Technical Director of VTOL Vehicles Mr. Dennis Fetters, an American living and working in China for 4 years now.

Submission + - Bat Wing Drone Ornithopter Unveiled for Mission to Mars (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: Stan Snow of Mountain Lake Labs files patent #61,858,116: Tri-Articulating & Morphing Bat Wing VTOL Ornithopter.

The MLABs Bat Wing is capable of 145 degrees deep sweep fore and aft in the horizontal plane. Where most ornithopters articulate wings with one to two degrees of freedom, the MLABs Bat Wing articulates thrice with also a fourth torsional rotation of the wings and individual morphing along the wingspan’s battens — creating the world’s most morphable UAV wing to date.

Each wing individually articulates for roll and yaw control. The wing system also deeply double articulates in the vertical Bat Wing Fig 1plane for efficient ornithopter flapping — bending on the upstroke and extending to scoop more air on the downstroke. Each wing is also variable in articulation on the up and downstroke.

Submission + - DARPA Hydra, unmanned sub mothership to deploy drones (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: The Hydra program will develop and demonstrate an unmanned undersea system with a new kind of unmanned-vehicle delivery system that inserts UAVs and UUVs. stealthily into operational environments to respond quickly to situations around the world without putting U.S. military personnel at risk.

The Hydra large UUV is to use modular payloads inside a standardized enclosure to deploy a mix of UAVs and UUVs, depending on the military situation. Hydra will integrate existing and emerging technologies in new ways to create an alternate means of delivering a variety of payloads close to where they're needed, DARPA officials say.

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