User blog: Bruce McPherson
JERUSALEM — Israel Aerospace Industries on Monday announced more than $100 million in contracts for loitering munitions in three deals that include the Rotem VTOL and the Harop drones. The latter was sold in its land and naval versions.
In keeping with the usual policy in Israel, the company did not reveal its customers, only saying that a foreign country acquired Rotem, while the naval and ground versions of Harop were sold in Asia.
IAI said the contracts are proof of the importance that modern armies place in having accurate munitions, noting the deals may serve as a “harbinger of additional business activity.”
Loitering munitions are sometimes referred to as kamikaze drones because they can be used as a weapon by crashing into a target. These weapons can also hunt down enemy air defenses, among other critical targets.
The Harop maritime variant provides an operational solution for a range of vessels, IAI said. “In a complex naval theater, the Harop system gives mission commanders in a fleet of ships the capability to independently and organically collect intelligence, assess targets and strike,” the firm has said. It can also be used as an alternative to or complement sea-to-sea missiles, and is useful in both low- and high-intensity conflict as well as counterterror operations, according to the company. It is also equipped with day and night cameras.
The Harop is sometimes seen in sets of nine on land vehicles but can be configured to a different format for use at sea. The electro-optical assets of the Harop aid the man-in-the-loop operator and also provide for deep strike air superiority capabilities, IAI said.
The Rotem is a vertical-takeoff-and-landing drone used by several countries. “The system provides a reconnaissance, observation and attack envelope with maximum autonomous performance, integrating a simple and intuitive operation interface that can be used by a single fighter from a touchscreen tablet,” IAI said.
According to Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, the recent Abraham Accords that saw relations improve between Israel and its neighbors, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, has opened a niche in which Israel is more “kosher” to do deals with. That opens doors in the Gulf region and to Muslim countries globally, where Israeli sales would otherwise be viewed skeptically or be very sensitive.
Other events boosting sales, he noted, include tension with Iran and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, during which Azerbaijan used loitering munitions against Armenian forces.
Israel often doesn’t identify the countries to which it sells defense systems because it doesn’t want to appear to be part of conflicts, Guzansky explained. But “usually in reports when they don’t disclose, it can be an Arab or Muslim country or Singapore, so usual suspects could be Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, etc.,” he added.
“Israel must be sensitive, to think hard at what kind of weapon systems and to whom [it is selling],” Guzansky said, as the government doesn’t want to become entangled in a conflict between rival countries or have its arms end up in the hands of those for which they were not intended.
Tal Inbar, an expert on defense and missile systems and a former chief of the Space Research Center at the Fisher Institute, also pointed to the recent Armenian-Azeri conflict as showcasing the use of loitering munitions. Amid the Abraham Accords, “I believe we will see [a] dramatic increase in [sales of] Israeli products.”
Three and a half decades of experience in producing UAVs has led IAI to this point. Its family of systems also include the Harpy, Mini Harpy and Green Dragon. The Harpy was developed with an anti-radiation seeker to suppress surface-to-air missile radar. IAI predicts a future where militaries will use multiple layers of unmanned and remotely operated systems.
The company sees the systems as appropriate for a variety of customers, from wealthy nations seeking high-tech weapons to those customers that require an affordable option to compensate for a lack of fifth-generation warplanes.
Maybe the 20s will be the decade of the drone after all, at least in South Africa.
Only a few months after granting the Western Cape government the legal rights to fly drones into emergency situations in the province, the country’s aviation regulator, the South African Civil Aviation Authority has gone on and issued another special operator’s licence; this time to drone-based precision agricultural solutions provider Integrated Aerial Systems, which received its commercial crop spraying drone operator’s licence recently.
Since 2016 when applications were opened, commercial drone operators have been having a hard time trying to meet the authority’s stringent requirements for an operator’s licence. Including IAS’s new issue, SACAA have issued only 66 operator’s licences in the last five years.
Little wonder that relations between the regulator and operators over the years have been frosty.
As for a crop spraying licence, IAS are only the second drone company to obtain one in the country, following on the footsteps of Durban-based DCG (formerly DC Geomatics), which had its licence in 2019.
At the time, SACAA was full of praise for the DCG, expressing hope that their new licence would inspire other applicants to follow suit.
“The SACAA remains very keen to integrate these aircraft into the existing manned-aviation sector and civil airspace, which is relatively safe, secure, and highly organised,” Kabelo Ledwaba, SACAA spokesperson said then. “We acknowledge that RPAS together with the Fourth Industrial Revolution will continue to be an integral part of the air transport network. Hence, we continue to work hand in hand in local and international bodies to integrate RPAS into the traditional manned-aviation airspace. We hope that this achievement by DCG sparks an interest in this new technology by other companies and individuals to enter this fairly new aviation industry.”
Nobody knew it would take them two years to issue another crop spraying licence. But relations between the two entities have been turning for the better in the last two years, and it is perhaps a show of good faith that the regulator is now granting these licences.
But whatever pang of goodwill has attacked SACAA of late, IAS are just excited to be working with a licence now.
“We are very proud to announce that after a long and challenging approval process, IAS has been granted their commercial drone crop spraying license,” the company said in a post on social media. “We are the first Western Cape based drone crop spraying operator and the second company in South Africa to provide a legal drone crop spraying platform. We have purchased eight DJI AGRAS T16 drones, which are now fully licensed and ready to begin spraying operations in Limpopo, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape.”
The Cape Town-based start-up made the drone headlines last August when they were the only drone enterprise to qualify for the finals of Generation Africa’s 2020 GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize. IAS use drones for precision crop spraying and multi-spectral surveys to give farmers actionable data about under-performing crops. They leverage the latest developments in drone hardware and software applications to deliver to their clients accurate and actionable data in a user-friendly manner.
“Crop Spraying with drones is set to change farming in South Africa due to the superior quality of spraying drones are able to achieve compared to manned aerial spraying especially for crops such as sugarcane,” the company said. “This is because the drones are able to get within 1,5metres-3metres above the crop and deliver an even application to almost 100 percent of the field. The drones are equipped with GPS navigation, fly on autonomous routes and fitted with special radar which actively maps out the terrain to ensure the aircraft maintains constant height while avoiding any obstacles. It’s an exciting time for the agricultural sector as these innovative technologies are making their way into mainstream farming improving agricultural output while being environmentally sustainable.”
We too are excited for you, IAS. Congratulations on joining the for-now exclusive club of licenced operators in South Africa. And for your new fleet.
by DroneBlogger
The world’s first course which trains pilots to fly drones so far out of visual sight they may even be in other countries has been set up in the UK.
The course is so specialised the training is done by former RAF and Royal Navy fighter pilots – along with ex-Army Air Corps helicopter pilots and Civil Aviation Authority examiners – who work for top drone training company Flyby Technology (www.bvlosdronetraining.com) and is recognised as a game-changer for how drones will be used in the future worldwide.
The BVLOS course, which stands for Beyond Visual Line of Sight, is taking how drones have been used by the military – flying them all over the world on missions controlled by pilots out of sight or even hundreds or thousands of miles away – and turning it into a civilian concept.
They will be overwhelmingly used as a force for good which is happening already with Flyby drones being deployed in France to spray anti-bacterial products in the battle against coronavirus. Drones from Yorkshire-based Flyby Technology have also been used to fly live Covid-19 samples to laboratories from hospitals and testing sites in support of NHS Test and Trace – and it seems the NHS will be using drones far more in the future.
All the pilots on the Flyby course go through a month-long intensive training at Flyby’s specialist drone flying school in Leicestershire.
The pilots will be the best qualified in the world which means they will be able to fly drones anywhere. Technology is moving at such a pace they will even be able to fly drones based in other countries from here in the UK.
Drones allowed to fly beyond visual sight could weigh up to a third of a tonne and carry weights of up to 150kg (23.5 stones). This makes them ideal for day-to-day work including spraying agricultural crops and making deliveries or for humanitarian emergencies such as taking water, food and medical supplies into remote regions after natural disasters including earthquakes, floods and tsunamis.
At the moment, drones can only be flown within sight of the operator and no more than 400ft (120m) high.
Flyby Technology founder Jon Parker, a former RAF fighter pilot, said: “Yesterday, drones were all about taking photos and videos, today it’s about inspecting buildings, power lines and other infrastructure but tomorrow it will all be about operations beyond visual line of sight and we are now training these drone pilots of tomorrow.
“They will be the best pilots in the world using the best technology and the best innovation to take aviation to the next level. In short, the skills needed to fly manned aircraft are being taken into the drone world to the extent that when they graduate Flyby pilots will receive their ‘wings’ and wear a uniform.”
Drones can be a less expensive option than manned helicopters and aeroplanes and, of course, can fly into places manned aircraft simply couldn’t get. They can also save the need for people to be put at risk such as rescue teams searching alongside fast-flowing rivers or on dangerous mountain sides. The flexibility of small drones means they can get high quality, close-up images of everything from inspecting power lines (a task normally done by expensive-to-run helicopters), railways and gas pipelines to getting a bird’s-eye view of agricultural crops.
Drones and the high technology cameras and recording equipment on them means crucial, even potentially life-saving, information can now be gathered that has previously been too expensive, dangerous or simply impossible to get.
The drones are packed with cameras – including three for landing and a pilot’s eye view.
Civil Aviation Authority says BVLOS drones are a ‘game-changer’
The Civil Aviation Authority in the UK supports the industry in making unmanned aircraft flights beyond the visual line of sight of the operator something that happens every day.
David Tait, Acting Head of the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s Innovation Team, said: “This would significantly change how unmanned aircraft are used in the UK. Normalising BVLOS will continue to push the UK forward as a world-leader in aviation innovation and technology.
“Enabling everyday drone flying beyond visual line of sight is a game-changer, providing the opportunity for unmanned vehicles to monitor critical infrastructure, make deliveries and support our daily lives in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.
“We are now working closely with some of the world’s leading innovators to make these amazing possibilities a reality.”
The CAA says that allowing BVLOS operations in the UK could bring huge benefits, including:
- Drone parcel delivery from a distribution centre to a customer.
- Long-distance aerial surveys of infrastructure such as power lines or highway construction.
- Surveillance at the scene of an accident or incident, operated from an external control centre.
- Street mapping a whole city with optical and acoustic sensors.
This is the ethos behind everything that Flyby Technology is doing – designing, building and operating drones that are unique for any company’s individual needs. They can then train that company’s staff to pilot them or provide them with highly skilled pilots who have been through Flyby’s BVLOS course.
Why the NHS wants to use more drones
It also looks like the NHS will be using drones far more in the future, a move that has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A government spokesman said: “NHS England anticipates that the recovery phase of this pandemic can significantly benefit from drones delivering medical payloads including equipment, medications, blood packs and more.
“Therefore, investing in their solution will continue to provide the NHS with an enhanced logistics system even after the pandemic is behind us.”
Flyby Technology has been granted approval by the Civilian Aviation Authority to become an official Recognised Assessment Entity. This means they can provide a range of drone courses, including the General Visual Line of Sight Certificate and the A2 Certificate of Competency Drone Training course. These certificates allow pilots of drones weighing over 249g to operate in congested areas with different separation rules.
By PRESS
In 2015, NASA began research on technology, performance requirements, and procedures to enable civil UAS operations in low altitude airspace. A Research Transition Team (RTT) was established to coordinate the NASA and FAA efforts for exploring a new paradigm in air traffic management that will integrate the anticipated new volume of small UAS operations into the NAS without overtaxing the current ATM system.
NASA’s research concept specifically addressed small UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations below 400 feet in airspace that contains low-density manned aircraft operations. NASA developed a phased approach for its UTM development and testing, building from rural to urban environments and from low- to high-density airspaces. This progression of Technical Capability Levels (TCL) brought in industry partners to assure the concept would enable their business cases and spur innovative solutions. The TCLs ranged from low risk Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operations to complex operations in high density urban environments (visual representation available here).
The testing culminated in demonstrations in downtown Reno, NV, and Corpus Cristi, TX, in 2019. Results from the TCLs have been published and technology transfers to the FAA of the UTM system concept, designs, and software concluded in 2020. The UTM demonstrations showed that a highly automated, federated, service-based architecture is feasible for safely managing future small UAS traffic demands. The UTM concept has been further tested by the FAA with NASA collaboration in the UTM Pilot Program Phases 1 and 2.
The UTM concept became a starting point for researching traffic management for other vehicle types and airspace domains such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and High Class E airspace under either BVLOS or VLOS conditions. Whereas the UTM project is sunsetting in mid-2021, NASA will continue to coordinate with the FAA and UAS community to advance the UAS Traffic Management ecosystem.
Want to learn more? Visit: NASA UTM: Home
Event Details:
A one-day Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) is being held to provide an opportunity to share insights into the research conducted, lessons learned, and next steps toward the future of UTM. Please see the meeting details below.
- Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2021
- Time: 10:00AM – 7:30PM ET (7:00AM – 4:30PM PT)
- Agenda: Coming Soon
- Video Collaboration Platform: YouTube Live Stream
- Q&A Platform: Conferences.io
On Tuesday (2/23), simply return to this webpage for the YouTube Live Stream link. It will be linked above where it says “YouTube Live Stream” 15 minutes prior to the start of the event (9:45AM ET / 6:45AM PT).
For Q&A, we will be utilizing conferences.io. You will enter your questions into the conferences.io platform and the speakers will respond one of two ways:
- Share the question and answer verbally with everyone through the YouTube live stream; or
- Provide a written answer through conferences.io for everyone to reference throughout the event.
To access conferences.io, enter https://arc.cnf.io/sessions/qw2n/#!/dashboard into your browser.
We will not be taking verbal or written questions from the audience through Youtube. However, you will need to use the YouTube Live Stream link to see the presentation materials and hear the discussion.
By PRESS
The $22 million Series A investment in German drone delivery company Wingcopter is the latest large funding announcement in the drone industry. While investors may be getting more picky, the appetite for proven solutions in drone technology is still strong, as the Wingcopter investment indicates..
Wingcopter has rapidly become a major international name in delivery drones for commercial and humanitarian applications. Wingcopter holds the Guiness world speed record (240 km/hour) and their unique design stands out from other solutions on the market. The Wingcopter 178 hovers like a multicopter, but moves forward as a fixed wing, with an elegant transition between the two modes. Wingcopter has a special focus on healthcare-related applications: their customizable payload system can accomodate a wide variety of cargo. The company is working on a long-term COVID 19 response project in Malawi, and have major international partnerships including UNICEF.
The Wingcopter investment round will enable the company to expand both services and production capacity. “Wingcopter will use the funds to strengthen its leadership in drone-based logistics, with a special focus on healthcare-related applications, including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” says a press release. “At the same time, Wingcopter is well-positioned and ready to establish more partnerships worldwide centering around other fully automated delivery applications.”
The press release provides a summary of how the Wingcopter solution works: The current model, the Wingcopter 178 Heavy Lift, provides both one- and two-way delivery, covering distances of up to 120 kilometers. It can accurately lower a package through a winch mechanism, or land at the point of destination and return to its origin with new payload. To further expand its market reach, Wingcopter is pressing ahead at full speed to launch the next generation of its aircraft, a game-changing delivery drone with unmatched technical specifications. Pre-orders can already be placed.
The company plans to set up a partially automated production line at their Weiterstadt, Germany, headquarters: and they plan to develop a production facility in the U.S. Wingcopter also plans to expand its drone-delivery-as-a-service offerings, and will significantly ramp up their staff, currently at about 100 employees.
Tom Plümmer, CEO of Wingcopter, comments: “Our team is driven by tackling the world’s challenges through scalable innovations. This chapter of our journey is dedicated to setting up logistical highways in the sky that leapfrog traditional means of transportation. Poor infrastructure has always been a barrier, especially for healthcare provision, impacting billions of lives – a situation further exacerbated by COVID-19. With the support and powerful networks of our investors we are taking a huge step closer to fulfilling our vision of creating efficient and sustainable drone solutions that improve and save lives everywhere.”
“We have been impressed with the Wingcopter team and the speed at which they have developed the product and built the company. We look forward to watching and supporting them as they help to deliver vaccines in the near-term, and to deliver freight in a more sustainable way over the long-term”, explains Jonathan McQueen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Xplorer Capital.
“The Wingcopter team combines entrepreneurial spirit with superior technology know-how and looks back on an impressive number of worldwide drone projects. This is what it takes to conquer a rapidly growing market such as the international drone market. We are excited to support Wingcopter on its flight towards becoming a global leader in the international drone business and look forward to working together with the team and founders”, says Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director of Futury Regio Growth Fund and Futury Ventures.
By Miriam McNabb
AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), today announced the introduction of its Extended Range Antenna (ERA), the latest addition to AeroVironment’s growing line of network connectivity solutions. The ERA is a lightweight, portable antenna array kit designed to integrate seamlessly with AeroVironment’s standard RF head antenna to support a diverse range of missions.
The ERA add-on kit narrows the antenna beam width, extending the command and control range up to 40 kilometers (24.9 miles) with minimal impact to its size, weight and power (SWAP) footprint. Similar to the standard RF head antenna, the ERA is manually positioned. The included RF Unit switch allows users to toggle between omnidirectional mode, for short-range operations, and extended range mode, for longer-range operations. The ERA supports both M1/2/5 and M3/4/6 Digital Data Link (DDL) operating bands.
By adding the ERA kit to their existing AeroVironment RF antenna, UAS flight operators can immediately expand their operational capabilities, gaining actionable battlefield intelligence at greater stand-off range to maximize their stealth and safety. When used in combination with other AeroVironment network connectivity options, the ERA provides an enhanced level of operational flexibility. This enables teams to coordinate command and control transfer of UAS, such as Puma LE, easily over greater distances, maximizing the aircraft’s multi-mission capabilities, in day or night operations, across dynamically changing environments.
“AeroVironment continues to incorporate direct customer and user feedback into our product development investments to address increasingly complex and dynamic mission requirements,” said Rick Pedigo, AeroVironment vice president of sales and business development. “Not only do operators benefit from available options in terms of UAS capabilities, but they can also benefit from a selection of antenna options that are portable, easy to operate and provide extended range and multi-mission capabilities.”
Further expanding its connectivity solutions, AeroVironment recently announced updates to its Long Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA), which it now offers in two versions to support M1/2/5 and M3/4/6 DDL frequency bands. AeroVironment’s network connectivity product line includes the pocketable, short-range pDDL (5 km), standard RF antenna (20 km), ERA (40 km) and LRTA (60 km) capabilities in both M1/2/5 and M3/4/6 bands.
For more information on AeroVironment’s network connectivity solutions, visit www.avinc.com/tuas/network-connectivity.
About AeroVironment Tactical UAS
The RQ-20A/B Puma™, Puma™ LE, RQ-11B Raven®, RQ-12A Wasp®, VAPOR® Helicopter, together with Quantix™ Recon, comprise AeroVironment’s family of tactical unmanned aircraft systems. This family of systems provides increased capability to the warfighter that gives ground commanders the option of selecting the appropriate aircraft based on the type of mission to be performed. This increased capability has the potential to provide significant force protection and force multiplication benefits to small tactical units and security personnel. AeroVironment provides logistics services worldwide to ensure a consistently high level of operational readiness. AeroVironment has delivered thousands of new and replacement tactical unmanned air vehicles to customers within the United States and to 50 allied governments.
About AeroVironment, Inc.
AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) provides technology solutions at the intersection of robotics, sensors, software analytics and connectivity that deliver more actionable intelligence so you can proceed with certainty. Celebrating 50 years of innovation, AeroVironment is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems and tactical missile systems, and serves defense, government and commercial customers. For more information, visit www.avinc.com.
By PRESS
SIMI VALLEY, Calif.– AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Telerob Gesellschaft für Fernhantierungstechnik mbH, a German leader in ground robotic solutions with a global footprint, for approximately $45.4 million (€37.5 million) in cash, and will pay-off approximately $9.4 million (€7.8 million) in Telerob’s debt at closing. Telerob’s shareholder has the potential to receive an additional earn-out over three years of up to approximately $7.3 million (€6 million) based upon achieving specific milestones.
Founded in 1994, Telerob offers one of the industry’s most advanced and comprehensive turn-key unmanned ground robotics solutions, including the telemax and tEODor EVO family of UGVs, fully-equipped transport vehicles and training, repair and support services. Telerob’s cutting-edge solutions safely and effectively perform a variety of dangerous missions, including explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), hazardous materials handling (HAZMAT) and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threat assessment. Telerob’s ruggedized UGVs possess all-terrain capabilities and offer some of the most advanced, specialized, precision manipulators, autonomous functionality and intuitive operation to deliver a high degree of mission flexibility. Telerob’s customers span 45 countries and numerous applications, including homeland security, emergency response and defense. Telerob is based near Stuttgart, Germany, with its U.S. office in Erie, PA.
“Acquiring Telerob marks a significant step toward achieving AeroVironment’s goal of offering an integrated portfolio of intelligent, multi-domain robotic solutions in response to evolving threat environments and customer requirements for more effective, rapid and cost-effective capabilities,” said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment president and chief executive officer. “Telerob’s advanced, proven ground robotic solutions provide a valuable capability to complement our market leading tactical UAS and tactical missile solutions and address a broader set of missions for our customers.”
“Telerob’s recent track record of strong revenue growth and its culture of innovation and agility align extremely well with AeroVironment. We look forward to welcoming the talented Telerob team to AeroVironment,” Nawabi added. “Together, we will focus on delivering continued growth in our existing businesses, addressing significant new adjacent market opportunities and developing new technologies and combined solutions to drive shareholder value and help our customers proceed with certainty.”
AeroVironment also announced that it recently submitted a proposal in partnership with Telerob to the United States Air Force for its multi-year, EOD robotic system program. AeroVironment’s strong track record supporting the Department of Defense and its proven delivery and support capabilities, coupled with Telerob’s advanced robotic system offering, represent a compelling solution for the Air Force mission. AeroVironment plans to pursue additional, significant domestic UGV opportunities with the United States Navy, Marine Corps, Air National Guard and numerous police forces. Specific international opportunities include UGVs for security at airports in a Middle Eastern allied nation and multiple UAS programs with the German Federal Ministry of Defense, which Telerob’s local presence supports.
“AeroVironment is a leader in unmanned systems, with a compelling vision for integrated robotic solutions that Telerob can help to achieve,” said Norbert Gebbeken, Telerob managing director. “We are excited to become part of the AeroVironment team and look forward to developing and delivering the advanced, integrated robotic solutions that will expand our reach and help our customers succeed. We are confident that working together, we will accelerate the progress underway and create greater opportunities to expand our geographic and customer footprint.”
AeroVironment expects the acquisition to be accretive to GAAP EPS in two years, and to non-GAAP EPS in fiscal year 2022, excluding intangible amortization and integration costs. Upon closing, Telerob will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AeroVironment, which plans to retain its entire team. The acquisition is expected to close by the Spring of 2021, subject to German government clearance.
BNP Paribas Securities and King & Spalding LLP advised AeroVironment on the transaction.
About AeroVironment, Inc.
AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) provides technology solutions at the intersection of robotics, sensors, software analytics and connectivity that deliver more actionable intelligence so you can proceed with certainty. Celebrating 50 years of innovation, AeroVironment is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems and tactical missile systems, and serves defense, government and commercial customers. For more information, visit www.avinc.com.
About Telerob
Telerob Gesellschaft für Fernhantierungstechnik mbH is an independent, medium-sized, owner-managed company based in Ostfildern near Stuttgart, Germany, producing defense and homeland security solutions. The product range includes remote-controlled robots for disarming improvised explosive devices and investigating CBRN hazards, fully equipped service vehicles as well as mobile system solutions ensuring the safety and security of critical infrastructure and people. For more information, visit https://www.telerob.com/en/.
By PRESS
Singapore/Bruchsal, December 2020 – Volocopter, the pioneer in Urban Air Mobility (UAM), announced its commitment today to launch air taxi services in Singapore after two years of close collaboration with the city. Working together with the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Volocopter plans to make air taxi services a reality in the Southeast Asian city-state within the next three years. This puts Singapore in pole position to launch Urban Air Mobility in Asia. In preparation for the launch, Volocopter has founded Volocopter Asia Holding and hired Hon Lung Chu as its Head of Asia Pacific in Singapore.
In October 2019, Volocopter completed the historic air taxi demonstration flight in the heart of Singapore over the Marina Bay area, giving observers the unique opportunity to have a sense of what Urban Air Mobility will look like. Leading up to this flight, the company opened a Singapore office in 2019, conducted extensive flight tests, and worked closely with several key stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and CAAS, to receive the necessary permits to fly then.
Before launching the services in Singapore, Volocopter will obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, including those from CAAS and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Volocopter’s regulatory approvals will be facilitated by CAAS and EASA’s Working Arrangement on Airworthiness Certification, which allows for validation of type certification to be done concurrently and in close coordination. To achieve this, Volocopter will, together with stakeholders, also be conducting comprehensive tests, flight trials, evaluations, and certification before approval to commence commercial air taxi operations can be granted.
“Singapore is renowned for its leading role in adapting and living new technologies. Our successful cooperation with EDB, MOT, and CAAS on our previous flight has shown that there is no better place in Asia to launch our electric air taxi services than in Singapore,” says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. “The city’s research institutes conducting R&D play an integral part in this. Topics like route validation for autonomous operations, material science, and research regarding battery technology are very important for our long-term business success.”
The first route in the Lion City is expected to be a touristic route over the southern waters, offering breath-taking views of the Marina Bay skyline. This could provide Singapore with a new attraction to enhance Singapore’s tourism industry in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow-on connections may include cross-border flights, which may enhance regional connectivity and offer a significantly improved travel experience to Singapore’s closest economic centers.
Leading up to the launch of commercial operations, Volocopter will build up a team of 50 pilots, engineers, operation specialists, and business managers in the next 3 years. The company is expected to hire over 200 full-time employees in Singapore to manage a network of Singapore routes by 2026. Volocopter has also initiated research and development projects with local institutions, starting with Fraunhofer Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University.
“Urban Air Mobility is an emerging area within the broader mobility sector, which we have identified as a growth industry for Singapore,” said Mr. Tan Kong Hwee, Executive Vice President, EDB. “Singapore is an important regional testbed for autonomous cars, electric vehicles, and Urban Air Mobility, including the successful test flight by Volocopter in 2019. We are glad that Volocopter has chosen Singapore to anchor its commercial and R&D activities. This will help build new capabilities for our mobility ecosystem and create many exciting opportunities for Singapore.”
“In this new area of Urban Air Mobility, we look forward to continue working with Volocopter. This gives us the opportunity to co-create regulations and technologies with the industry, facilitating innovation to enable a future mode of transportation for Singapore,” said Mr. Tan Kah Han, Senior Director (Unmanned Systems Group) of CAAS.
Volocopter air taxis are emission-free, electrically powered aircraft that take-off and land vertically. They are designed as an addition to urban mobility and will fly up to two passengers directly and quietly to their destination. As such, they will offer a whole new dimension to the quality of life in cities.
About Volocopter GmbH
Volocopter is building the world’s first sustainable and scalable Urban Air Mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to megacities worldwide. With the VoloCity, the company is developing the first fully electric “eVTOL” aircraft in certification to safely and quietly transport passengers within cities. Volocopter leads and cooperates with partners in infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem necessary to ‘Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life’.
In 2011, Volocopter performed the first-ever manned flight of a purely electric multicopter and has since showcased numerous public flights with its full-scale aircraft. The most notable have been the public test flights at Singapore’s Marina Bay in October 2019 and the world’s first autonomous eVTOL flight in Dubai 2017. Volocopter is also developing products for the logistics and precision agriculture space with their VoloDrone.
Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter has 200 employees in offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore. The company is managed by CEO Florian Reuter, CTO Arnaud Coville, CFO Rene Griemens, and CCO Christian Bauer, and has raised a total of 122 million euro in equity. Volocopter‘s investors include Daimler, Geely, DB Schenker, Intel Capital, Team Europe, btov, Micron, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, TransLink Capital (Japan Airlines and Sompo Japan Insurance), MS&AD Ventures, and Manta Ray Ventures. Find out more at: www.volocopter.com
By PRESS
Phase two of the UAS Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP) sets the stage for the future of Remote ID.
(Oh look the sky used to be full of Phantoms now its being populated by Skydio gear! (ED))
By Steve Bradford, Chief Scientist — Architecture & NextGen Development
When we picture the future, we might imagine scenes from our favorite science fiction movies, with drones that deliver packages, medications, pizza, and other necessities right to our doorstep (why yes, pizza is a necessity…).
Thanks to the emergence of sophisticated drone technology, the future is actually here.
The low altitude airspace has grown crowded, with more Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) occupying our skies every day. While busy skies are exciting and rife with opportunity, they also present novel challenges when it comes to the management of our airspace.
That’s why experts at the FAA and NASA have collaborated with industry partners to further develop innovative UAS Traffic Management (UTM) capabilities that safely and efficiently manage the national airspace to benefit our communities. In 2017, the UTM Pilot Program (UPP) was established to do just that. Since then, multiple testing and demonstration events with FAA UAS Test Sites and industry partners have advanced the technology that will allow UAS to safely share airspace while enabling innovation and progress.
In the summer of 2019, the FAA completed phase one of the program with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems, Northern Plains UAS Test Site, and Virginia Tech’s Mid Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP). Phase one successfully laid the groundwork for fundamental capabilities that serve as the backbone of the UTM ecosystem, including communication between operators and drone service suppliers and drone volume reservations.
UPP Phase Two, which wrapped up last month with MAAP and the New York UAS Test Site, took UTM a step further by focusing on how the use of remote identification (remote ID) enables beyond visual line of sight operations in increasingly dense airspace.
Image credit: KAIA IncorporatedIt’s important to note that remote ID is a pivotal feature of UTM. It allows authorized parties, like public safety entities, to access basic identifying information about drones in flight — kind of like a digital license plate. This capability will help ensure the safety of operators and mitigate public risk while facilitating operations that benefit the community, such as search and rescue missions and healthcare initiatives.
Phase two of the program provided the opportunity to determine how remote ID can support UTM operations in ways that achieve public safety goals while protecting operator autonomy and supporting innovation. This is why we partnered with both industry trailblazers and public safety organizations in Virginia and New York: to establish a commitment to security and community wellness while adhering to the ASTM International standard for remote ID and tracking.
Going beyond what was proposed in the standard, we also tested cybersecurity measures to ensure that private information could only be accessed by authorized users. For instance, digital certificates from the International Aviation Trust Framework were used to sign messages and access tokens were provided to each UPP participant to ensure the appropriate level of access.
The purpose of UTM is to support an airspace that is safe and accessible to all while protecting the interests of the FAA as manager of that airspace, the operators who deliver the benefits, and those on the ground who depend upon FAA to keep them safe. UPP furthers these goals by providing proof of concept for UTM capabilities, a basis for policy considerations, and support to standards development for UTM implementation.
You can learn more about UPP by reading this UTM report
By PRESS
Chuck Yeager in 1948. The previous year, he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier.
Credit...Associated Press
By Richard Goldstein
Chuck Yeager, the most famous test pilot of his generation, who was the first to break the sound barrier and, thanks to Tom Wolfe, came to personify the death-defying aviator who possessed the elusive yet unmistakable “right stuff,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 97.
His death, at a hospital, was announced on his official Twitter account and confirmed by John Nicoletti, a family friend.
General Yeager came out of the West Virginia hills with only a high school education and with a drawl that left many a fellow pilot bewildered. The first time he went up in a plane, he was sick to his stomach.
But he became a fighter ace in World War II, shooting down five German planes in a single day and 13 over all. In the decade that followed, he helped usher in the age of military jets and spaceflight. He flew more than 150 military aircraft, logging more than 10,000 hours in the air.
His signal achievement came on Oct. 14, 1947, when he climbed out of a B-29 bomber as it ascended over the Mojave Desert in California and entered the cockpit of an orange, bullet-shaped, rocket-powered experimental plane attached to the bomb bay.
An Air Force captain at the time, he zoomed off in the plane, a Bell Aircraft X-1, at an altitude of 23,000 feet, and when he reached about 43,000 feet above the desert, history’s first sonic boom reverberated across the floor of the dry lake beds. He had reached a speed of 700 miles an hour, breaking the sound barrier and dispelling the long-held fear that any plane flying at or beyond the speed of sound would be torn apart by shock waves.
“After all the anticipation to achieve this moment, it really was a letdown,” General Yeager wrote in his best-selling memoir “Yeager” (1985, with Leo Janos). “There should’ve been a bump in the road, something to let you know that you had just punched a nice, clean hole through the sonic barrier. The Ughknown was a poke through Jell-O. Later on, I realized that this mission had to end in a letdown because the real barrier wasn’t in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.”
Nonetheless, the exploit ranked alongside the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 and Charles Lindbergh’s solo fight to Paris in 1927 as epic events in the history of aviation. In 1950, General Yeager’s X-1 plane, which he christened Glamorous Glennis, honoring his wife, went on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
His feat put General Yeager in the headlines for a time, but he truly became a national celebrity only after the publication of Mr. Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff” in 1979, about the early days of the space program, and the release of the movie based on it four years later, in which General Yeager was played by Sam Shepard. He was depicted breaking the sound barrier in the opening scene.
In his portrayal of the astronauts of NASA’s Mercury program, Mr. Wolfe wrote about the post-World War II test pilot fraternity in California’s desert and its notion that “a man should have the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness to pull it back in the last yawning moment — and then go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day.”
That quality, understood but unspoken, Mr. Wolfe added, would entitle a pilot to be part of “the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself.”
Mr. Wolfe wrote about a nonchalance affected by pilots in the face of an emergency in a voice “specifically Appalachian in origin,” one that was first heard in military circles but ultimately emanated from the cockpits of commercial airliners.
“It was,” Mr. Wolfe said, “the drawl of the most righteous of all the possessors of the right stuff: Chuck Yeager.”
In his memoir, General Yeager said he was annoyed when people asked him if he had the right stuff, since he felt it implied a talent he was born with.
“All I know is I worked my tail off learning to learn how to fly, and worked hard at it all the way,” he wrote. “If there is such a thing as the right stuff in piloting, then it is experience. The secret to my success was that somehow I always managed to live to fly another day.”
Charles Elwood Yeager was born on Feb. 13, 1923, in Myra, W. Va., the second of five children of Albert and Susie Mae (Sizemore) Yeager. He grew up in nearby Hamlin, a town of about 400, where his father drilled for natural gas in the coal fields. By the time he was 6, Chuck was shooting squirrels and rabbits and skinning them for family dinners, reveling in a country boy’s life.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces out of high school in September 1941, becoming an airplane mechanic. One day he took a ride with a maintenance officer flight-testing a plane he had serviced and promptly threw up over the back seat. But he joined a flight program for enlisted men in July 1942, figuring it would get him out of kitchen detail and guard duty. He received his pilot wings and appointment as a flight officer in March 1943 while at a base in Arizona, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after arriving in England for training.
In 2016, when General Yeager was asked on Twitter what made him want to become a pilot, the reply was infused with cheeky levity: “I was in maintenance, saw pilots had beautiful girls on their arms, didn’t have dirty hands, so I applied.”
He possessed a natural coordination and aptitude for understanding an airplane’s mechanical system along with coolness under pressure. He enjoyed spins and dives and loved staging mock dogfights with his fellow trainees.
He flew P-51 Mustang fighters in the European theater during World War II, and in March 1944, on his eighth mission, he was shot down over France by a German fighter plane and parachuted into woods with leg and head wounds. But he was hidden by members of the French underground, made it to neutral Spain by climbing the snowy Pyrenees, carrying a severely wounded flier with him, and returned to his base in England.
Downed pilots were not generally put back into combat, but his pleas to see action again were granted. On Oct. 12, 1944, leading three fighter squadrons escorting bombers over Bremen, Germany, he downed five German planes, becoming an ace in a day. In November, he shot down another four planes in one day.
After the war, General Yeager was assigned to Muroc Army Air Base in California, where hot-shot pilots were testing jet prototypes. He was chosen over more senior pilots to fly the Bell X-1 in a quest to break the sound barrier, and when he set out to do it, he could barely move, having broken two ribs a couple of nights earlier when he crashed into a fence while racing with his wife on horseback in the desert.
The Air Force kept the feat a secret, an outgrowth of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, but in December 1947, Aviation Week magazine revealed that the sound barrier had been broken; the Air Force finally acknowledged it in June 1948.
But life continued much the same at Muroc. The pilots and their families had quarters little better than shacks, the days were scorching and the nights frigid, and the landscape was barren. The pilots flew by day and caroused by night, piling into the Pancho Barnes bar.
In December 1949, Muroc was renamed Edwards Air Force Base, and it became a center for advanced aviation research leading to the space program. In December 1953, General Yeager flew the X-1A plane at nearly two and a half times the speed of sound after barely surviving a spin, setting a world speed record.
In the fall of 1953, he was dispatched to an air base on Okinawa in the Pacific to test a MiG-15 Russian-built fighter that had been flown into American hands by a North Korean defector. Battling stormy weather as he took the plane aloft, he analyzed its strengths and weaknesses. In 1962, he became commander of the school at Edwards that trained prospective astronauts.
He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel and flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers in attacking enemy troops and their supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
After serving as head of aerospace safety for the Air Force, he retired as a brigadier general in 1975. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, from President Ronald Reagan in 1985.
NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine, described General Yeager’s death in a statement as “a tremendous loss to our nation.” The astronaut Scott Kelly, writing on Twitter, called him “a true legend.”
General Yeager became a familiar face in commercials and made numerous public appearances. Flying F-15 planes, he broke the sound barrier again on the 50th and 55th anniversaries of his pioneering flight, and he was a passenger on an F-15 plane in another breaking of the sound barrier to commemorate the 65th anniversary.
His first wife, the former Glennis Dickhouse, with whom he had four children, died in 1990. He married Victoria D’Angelo in 2003. He is survived by his wife; two daughters, Susan Yeager and Sharon Yeager Flick; and a son, Don. Another son, Michael, died in 2011.
In his memoir, General Yeager wrote that through all his years as a pilot, he had made sure to “learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment.”
It may not have accorded with his image, but, as he told it: “I was always afraid of dying. Always.”