Commercial

AeroVironment to Develop MALE UAS for DARPA

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has issued a $2.3 million contract to AeroVironment to develop a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that can operate from small ships providing…

Commercial

MQ-8C Completes First Flight 

Northrop Grumman's MQ-8C unmanned helicopter completed its first flight at the Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, Calif., last week. The flight, operated by a ground-based team from the U.S. Navy and…

Business & GA

Editor's Note: Shutdown

As I write this column in mid-October from my Maryland office, just a stones-throw from our nation’s Capitol, the government is shutdown. Closed. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers around the country…

ATM Modernization

Industry Scan

FAA Considers Relaxing PED Rules FAA’s rules regulating the use of personal electronic devices (PED) on commercial aircraft are expected to change by 2014, as a federal advisory panel is expected to…

ATM Modernization

Human Factors in Avionics Design

Human factors engineering applies our understanding of the abilities and limitations of the human mind to the design of aircraft cockpits by studying the interaction of the pilot’s mind with proposed avionics…

Business & GA

Unmanned, Autonomous and Dependent

The Naval Air Systems Command Special Surveillance Program office sponsored the integration of the R3E All Weather Sense and Avoid System on the TigerShark UAS. Two TigerSharks demonstrated autonomous sense-and- avoid capability…

ATM Modernization

Avionics for NextGen

Hundreds of aviation professionals gathered in Atlantic City, N.J., in September to hear about NextGen technologies, implementation and challenges at Avionics Magazine’s third annual Avionics for NextGen conference. Congressman Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.),…

Commercial

Simulating Flight

The engineering required to design, build, operate and maintain modern aircraft is no less than a monumental feat. Hardware, software and integration challenges have been solved by many hours of effort from…