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‘drone’ Stories

US Navy makes history with first drone takeoff from aircraft carrier

, May 15th 2013 Discuss [0]

As drones become more controversial, the government is digging deeper into the technology to make it more useful. Case in point: the US Navy make history by developing a specialized drone that can takeoff and land from and aircraft carrier. The X-47B, as it's called, is in its prototype stages, and it marked the first time that an unmanned aerial vehicle has taken off from an aircraft carrier. Read The Full Story

Google Ventures joins multi-million Airware drone brain investment

, May 15th 2013 Discuss [0]

Google Ventures and others have invested $10.7m in a drone OS startup, Airware, aiming to create autonomous, unmanned aircraft which could be used by emergency services or in civil applications such as farming and mapping. The funding round, which sees Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz dip into their pockets, will support development of Airware's off-the-shelf autopilots for drones, which are intended to be far more cost-effective than traditional such systems. Read The Full Story

Google’s Eric Schmidt asks for increased regulation for civilian drones

, Apr 14th 2013 Discuss [0]

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has voiced his concerns over the use of civilian drones. In an interview with The Guardian, he states that civilian drones could potentially be used irresponsibly, and can compromise a person's privacy. He also addresses concerns that these miniature drones can potentially be used as a terrorist weapon. He says that terrorists can strap weapons, like IEDs (improved explosive devices), to the drones. Read The Full Story

NASA taps US Marines for Dragon Eye volcano flight

, Apr 2nd 2013 Discuss [0]

When NASA aims to hit a volcano to study its fabulous plumes of heated debris, they do it in style: with a set of Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicles. The mission NASA rolled with three Aerovironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye UAVs from the United States Marine Corps (USMC), these vehicles issued via the General Services Administration’s San Francisco office. It was NASA’s Ames Research Center, at Moffett Field, California that negotiated the transfer, and the Turrialba Volcano, near San Jose, Costa Rica, that they've flown over. Weee! Read The Full Story

Unidentified drone spotted near JFK International Airport

, Mar 5th 2013 Discuss [0]

The pilot of Alitalia Flight #608 yesterday spotted a small, black drone hovering around JFK International airport yesterday. The drone is about 3 feet wide, has 4 propellers, and was hovering around an altitude of 1,750 feet. The Alitalia airplane was about 3 miles away from landing on runway 31R when the unidentified drone came within 200 feet of it. This all occurred around 1:15 p.m. Read The Full Story

Drone drama as British military admits hundreds of lost UAVs

, Feb 13th 2013 Discuss [0]

Over 400 drones ranging from palm-sized helicopters to a $16m combat-capable Reaper have been lost in action, blown up, or simply stopped working over the past five years, the British military has admitted. The Ministry of Defence has not put a final total on how much the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) deployment, which has taken place in Afghanistan and Iraq, has cost, but a new report on drone incidents has detailed the breadth of losses involved, the Guardian reports. Read The Full Story

Drones deployed in Dorner man-hunt

, Feb 11th 2013 Discuss [0]

US security officials have approved the first known use of drone man-hunting on American soil, with fugitive Christopher Dorner, who has a $1bn bounty on his head after killing three people, being chased by the remote-controlled tech. Customs and Border Control confirmed to Express that eye-in-the-sky technology - which is equipped with thermal-imaging cameras - had been deployed to monitor the Mexican border, where Dorner is believed to be headed. Read The Full Story

Lehmann Aviation LA100 drone takes GoPro to new autonomous heights

, Jan 30th 2013 Discuss [0]

GoPro cameras are great for capturing race-track or extreme sports footage, but Lehmann Aviation wants to take the compact camcorders to the sky with the new autonomous LA100 UAV drones. Designed for those who want to capture bird-level footage but don't have time to learn how to fly a glider or other aircraft, the LA100 is fully automatic and follows a preset flight-plan at 80-100m height, coming straight back after its finished the loop. Read The Full Story

DARPA unveils 1.8-gigapixel drone camera, can target hostiles at 20,000 feet

, Jan 29th 2013 Discuss [0]

Watch out, kids, because surveillance drones are about to get an upgrade. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have developed what's called the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS), and it's said to be the most advanced surveillance system in the sky with a price tag of $18.5 million for the program. Read The Full Story

Stealth Wear hoodie is an invisibility cloak to drones

, Jan 18th 2013 Discuss [0]

In light of the drones used to prowl the skies while snooping on the everyday person, Adam Harvey has designed a Stealth Wear hoodie that serves as a type of invisibility cloak against the spying equipment. Harvey hails from New York, and is no stranger in the world of surveillance-thwarting apparel. Some of the artist's other items in this category include CVDazzle, makeup that foils face-recognition applications. Read The Full Story

Live USA Map of Unmanned Drones released by EEF

, Dec 6th 2012 Discuss [0]

The term “unmanned aerial drone” might strike a bit of fear into your heart when you see the live tracking map of the USA that’s been made available this week by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but not to worry – not all of them are flying overhead right this minute. Instead this is a map that’s the result of the EEF’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that covers the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)’s full knowledge of unmanned flights across the United States and what you’re looking at is a tracking of project licenses rather than actually flying objects. That said, this map is exciting in its coverage for our greater understanding of unmanned drone flight projects as initiated by state and local law agencies, universities, and US Military operations.

Read The Full Story

Google funds drones to watch over endangered species in Africa and Asia

, Dec 6th 2012 Discuss [0]

Warfare isn't the only use for drones these days. It turns out that Google is giving the World Wildlife Fund $5 million to put drones in the sky to watch over endangered species in Africa and Asia, mostly to save them from poachers. Plus, the money will also cover software that will be able to map out where poachers strike most. Read The Full Story
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