Successful battlefield evacuation highlights an emerging use for unmanned aircraft as Ukrainian manufacturers develop dedicated aerial medical evacuation systems. Ukrainian forces have reported a successful evacuation of a wounded soldier using a heavy-lift drone. The operation demonstrates a potential new application for unmanned aircraft in situations where ground rescue is … [Read more...] about Ukraine Uses Heavy-Lift Drone to Evacuate Wounded Soldier in First Documented Rescue
unmanned aircraft
DIU Launches $100 Million Challenge for Low-Cost ISR Aircraft
U.S. and international manufacturers invited to compete, with up to $250 million more budgeted for development and scaled production The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has launched a $100 million competition to identify low-cost intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that can be produced and deployed at scale. The Low Cost ISR (LC-ISR) Challenge opened … [Read more...] about DIU Launches $100 Million Challenge for Low-Cost ISR Aircraft
Guest Post: Why Drones May Change How We Operate in the Atmosphere
Commercial drones have made their name by observing the world below. Now a new class of missions is moving the aircraft up into the atmosphere itself. The Utah Division of Water Resources is exploring drone-based cloud seeding to replace the crewed aircraft it tested from 2022 to 2025. That puts unmanned aircraft at the meeting point of aviation, meteorology, autonomy and water … [Read more...] about Guest Post: Why Drones May Change How We Operate in the Atmosphere
Archer Unveils Halo, the Commercial Autonomous VTOL Built With Anduril
Halo is the commercial variant of Archer's jointly developed dual-use platform, launching with Japan's Marubeni Aerospace as first strategic partner. Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) unveiled Halo, the commercial variant of a jointly developed dual-use platform built with Anduril Industries to serve both defense and commercial markets. The Archer Halo autonomous VTOL was announced … [Read more...] about Archer Unveils Halo, the Commercial Autonomous VTOL Built With Anduril
DARPA Launches $6.5 Million Challenge to Reinvent Heavy-Lift Drones
DARPA challenges innovators to create muscular drones By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill Heavy-lift drones, the workhorses of the drone ecosystem, face a significant obstacle to their widespread adoption for military and commercial uses: their payload-to-weight ratio is low, typically far below one-to-one for multirotor UAVs. Hoping to solve this problem, the Defense … [Read more...] about DARPA Launches $6.5 Million Challenge to Reinvent Heavy-Lift Drones
