Aerospace Diary

Pix Neelam Mathews (copyright) Neelam Mathews Dec 6, 2017 ShephardMedia The Indian military’s desire for UAVs will soon be boosted with further RfPs. While the army is already processing  an RfP  for mini-UAVs, India is looking to push on towards integrated army, navy and air force buys for   MALE   and HALE UAVs, for which RfIs have already been issued ...

Neelam Mathews JAR June 27 2017 Escalating demand in  Singapore  for cheap, high-tech commercial  drones has prompted authorities in the city-state to develop  an unmanned aerial system (UAS) traffic management (UTM)  system. A joint research centre called the Air Traffic Management  Research Institute (ATMRI), led by Nanyang Technological  University (NTU) and the Civil Aviation Authority of  Singapore (CAAS), is working on a four-year project called Traffic Management  of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TM-UAS). The project is scheduled to complete .......read in JAR 

Neelam Mathews April 11, 2017 China -based e-commerce retailer JD.com has carried out thousands of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivery tests in remote rural areas of four provinces since June 2016. It is also adding 150 UAV stations in Sichuan Province "in the short-to-medium term," a JD.com representative told  Jane's   , referring to the plan as an "aspirational goal". 1699710 A JD.com delivery UAV, pictured in November 2016 on take-off in Suqian, Jiangsu Province,  China . (JD.com) This expansion would enable JD.com - the second largest online retailer in  China  behind Alibaba - to serve more provinces and villages. "We'd rather not call the facilities 'airports', as some publications have referred to them," the official added. The UAV infrastructure plan was developed by JDX, the logistics research and development arm of JD.com. JDX focused on innovative solutions to transport items from warehouses to cus...

Neelam Mathews Feb 17 2017 Sing Air Show The Indian government is considering comprehensive Civil Aviation Requirements to regulate small, unmanned aerial vehicles ( UAV s, or “drones”), following recent incidents of their flying close to the airport, and Indian parliament. Guidelines could include registration, tracking, implementation, and penalties for offenders. Drones are “being discussed internally and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has to work on this [further],” said to R.N. Choubey, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, speaking to  AIN . He acknowledged that the ministry was facing “technical challenges like tracking…how does one track recreational drones? Tracking costs money and increases the weight of a drone. It needs to be monitored, and tracking devices will have to be put across the country,” he added. Administrative issues are getting in the way, too, regarding which authority gives permission for drones to ...

Neelam Mathews and Ben Vogel Dec 3 2015 US -based PrecisionHawk (PH) is building a low altitude tracking and avoidance system (LATAS) as a solution for safe air traffic management (ATM) of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). PH is developing LATAS in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA, and major industry partners Verizon, Harris, and DigitalGlobe. The aim is for LATAS to enable pilots of manned aircraft to pinpoint the location of unmanned aircraft in the airspace before they become a safety hazard. 1644271 Could LATAS assuage FAA concerns over RPAS safety? (PrecisionHawk) LATAS is being assessed in the FAA Pathfinder programme and the NASA-led UAS Traffic Management (UTM) project. PH is working with NASA and other partners to test a wide range of RPAS in real-world scenarios. As NASA continues to develop a workable UTM, LATAS will have the potential to serve as the hardware addition for each drone attached to that overarchin...

By  Neelam Mathews   Nov 5, 2015 India’s own MALE UAV is shown during recent taxi trials. It is named Rustom-2 after an Indian aeronautical scientist. (Photo: HAL) The Rustom-2 medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) designed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization   (DRDO) will make its first flight by early next month. Delayed by around two years, Rustom-2 “is at an advanced state of readiness,” according to Ashok Rangan, the program director at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO laboratory that develops and transfers technology to a production agency. The project was   first shown   as a full-scale model at the Aero India show in 2010. Rangan told   AIN   that Rustom-2 is benefiting from experience gained with the Rustom-1, also known as the Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA). This project of the National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) developed a small UAV tha...

UVonline The Indian UAS market is looking strong after years of stagnation. Neelam Mathews rounds up the latest development T hanks to the government’s push to ‘Make in India’ combined with some longoverdue action on procurement decisions that had taken a back seat for the past decade, UAVs are high on the agenda for military and security agencies. Newly forged public-private partnerships are driving growth in an industry that was previously restricted by slow-moving statesector development programmes. Given the country’s manufacturing boom, ‘initiatives of development are being done in India [now] at multiple levels as sources of technology are dispersed, and are not dependent on just one or two OEMs’, said Rahul Gangal, partner in the New Delhi office of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. India’s 6Wresearch has forecast the domestic UAV market will reach $421 million by 2021, although this figure may need to be revised given the i...

Neelam Mathews Jan 17, 2015   My past writings have shown a definite leaning towards quality and efficiency of military equipment whether it be bought from home or abroad and most would agree that would stand us in good stead in time of crisis. Something India has learnt bitter lessons from. Yes, waiting for the LCA and engines for many a project has delayed many a procurement. Now with ‘Make in India’ a slogan and the practice being adopted and implemented, one might have to revisit some clauses before we jump in to manufacture basic foreign equipment that could perhaps have its strength in India. Take for example the US mini UAV- an agreement for manufacture that could be announced at President Obama’s visit to India with US AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven, a small hand-launched remote-controlled UAV that can fly upto 10km. One does know of a similar model designed in India by Kadet Defence Systems, SilverBee. So what makes us rush into the arms of the Amer...

Neelam Mathews Jan 13, 2012 An RFI is out by the Indian Army that is planning to procure an Unmanned  Aerial Vehicle (UAV)  Mission Simulator. The last date of submission is Feb 25. The RFI says the Indian Army is employing Searcher and Heron class of UAVs and is planning to acquire a Mission Simulator for training of its crew. The  UAV Mission Simulator should be capable of conducting  initial and refresher training of External Pilot, Internal Pilot, Mission Commander and Observer with a separate console available to the instructor.  The Simulator is proposed to be used for simulation of single, Air Data Relay (ADR), mission scenario, maritime scenario, with or without Satellite Communication (SATCOM) for single or multiple payloads. It will also be used for simulation of all phases of UAV mission as well as its payloads and to play pre-recorded missions with annotations for analysis. 

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Feb 25, 2012 A prototype of the UAV developed by a student team of Delhi Technological University with financial resources and engineering mentoring support from Lockheed Martin was displayed at the ICAUV 2012 conference in Bengaluru. The students also showed a video of their first flight test in January. The student team from DTU was selected by LMC due to their winning a US-based competition to design a small UAV, beating teams from universities such as MIT and Stanford. The LM Corporate Engineering and Technology organization is funding a sponsored research program with this winning team to develop a design for the next generation of UAV’s tailored for operations in large urban environments. Test flight of the prototype UAV is scheduled for end February 2012. This will be reviewed by Lockheed Martin executives. The announcement of this joint research was made by Dr. Ray O Johnson (senior vice president and chief technology officer, Lockheed Martin) in ...