25 days to register for UK drone pilots

UK owners of drones and model aircraft weighing more than 250g /8.8oz have until just the end of November to register their details with the UK's Civil Aviation Authority or face a hefty fine of up to £1,000.

Users can now also register as a drone operator and/or flyer here: register-drones.caa.co.uk 

This mandatory requirement to register covers owners of drones or model aircraft over 250g and in addition to registering, owners will also have to undergo an online education course and following test. The course and test takes around 20 - 25 minutes to complete.

According to recent research, a quarter of owners have lost a drone at some point, with many going missing because of malfunctions in flight, losing battery power, loss of signal or other such technical failures.

The CAA research also found that millennials are most likely to lose their drone: 36% of 18-34-year olds have lost a drone compared to 20% of those aged 35 and above. Millennials are more likely to insure their drone: 54% of 18-34-year-olds have some kind of insurance for their drones compared to only 26% of those aged 35+. 

Six million flight hours for GA-ASI’s Predator series aircraft

Photo Business Wire

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, announced on Monday that its Predator series of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) commonly known as drones, which includes the Predator, Predator B, Gray Eagle, Avenger and MQ-9B SkyGuardian lines, has surpassed six million flight hours. The aerospace firm said this milestone was achieved on October 31, 2019 with GA-ASI aircraft having completed 430,495 total missions with close to 90 percent of those missions flown in combat situations.

These RPA's are in use with the US Air Force, Army, Marine Corps as well as the US Department of Homeland Security and NASA. Non-US operators include the UK's Royal Air Force, Italian Air Force, French Air Force and the UAE Armed Forces,

Leonardo to support the UK's Royal Air Force with future drone technology

The UK's Ministry of Defence has selected Leonardo to support a multi-million-pound research & development (R&D) programme to better understand counter-drone technology.

Building on previous R&D undertaken with the company in this area, Leonardo will support the RAF to explore technical mitigations to the current threats posed by hostile drones through the evaluation of mature and evolving sensor and effector technology.

Starting in early 2020 and supporting 20 jobs across the company, the primary integration work will be mainly undertaken by Leonardo at its Basildon (Essex) and Southampton sites, with real-time testing undertaken at several MOD locations within the UK.

BT delivers Counter Drone Solution for Enterprise customers

By Simon Wingrove, Director of Strategy and Incubation at BT

Many will recall the Gatwick Airport drone incident that occurred late last year. Over three days, drones were seen flying over aeroplane runways, causing hundreds of flights to delay or cancel, and displacing 140, 000 passengers. For Gatwick Airport, this caused major chaos, cementing this as the biggest disruption since ash from an Icelandic volcano shut down the Airport in 2010.

Drones are one of the biggest technology innovations of this era, having improved emergency services and disaster relief programs. However, with the increased use and popularity of drones, the number of drone-related incidents in the UK has also risen, with issues involving civil aircraft alone rising 29% last year, according to UK Airprox Board.

Unmanned aircraft used for transplant organ delivery in Maryland

AiRXOS, part of GE Aviation, has participated in the world’s first unmanned aircraft (UA) flight that delivered a donor kidney to surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland for successful transplantation into a patient with kidney failure. 

The momentous flight was a collaboration between transplant physicians and researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in Baltimore; aviation and engineering experts at the University of Maryland (UMD); and collaborators at the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland (The LLF). While organ transport by drone has been previously tested successfully between medical facilities by the University of Maryland UAS Test Site in St. Mary’s County, this is the first time the flight operation was used to deliver an organ for transplant.

The world’s first unmanned aircraft delivery of donor organ for transplant surgery in an urban environment

Photo University of Maryland 

Drones, Delivery Services, and Their Potential Partnership

image: https://www.pexels.com

Supply chain efficiency has come a long way in recent years, and a variety of emerging technologies are continuing to push the field forward. Companies now have more tools than ever before to further optimize their delivery services, which suggests that the international supply chain has a promising future.

That said, last-mile delivery costs still represent more than half of all shipping costs and happens to be one of the areas in which innovation is needed. Drones are emerging as not only a cutting-edge shipping solution that can cut down on shipping costs but also as an alternative that can have a positive impact on our environmental footprint.

What Makes Drones Valuable?

Drone sightings halt operations at Dublin Airport

Drone chaos strikes at Dublin Airport!    The busiest Irish International airport became the latest international gateway to be disrupted by drone sightings over the airfield today.

All flight operations were suspended on Thursday morning following confirmed sightings of a drone over the airport. The suspension started at 1149 local time out of an abundance of caution, the airport operators saying safety was its key priority.

A pilot reported a drone sighting to the Irish Aviation Authority at the airport, approximately at 11.30am.  This prompted the suspension of flights by air traffic control. Which is understood to be agreed and preplanned procedures for drone attacks or sightings. 

There were no further sightings of the drone during a 30-minute suspension of flights, so the airport reopened for normal operations. However, many flights were delayed either arriving or departing due to the drone incursion.  A few flights were diverted away from Dublin during the incident which is estimated to have cost over €75,000.

Many flights are holding due the confirmed sighting of a drone over Dublin Airport.

Live map: https://t.co/srQlZ7tWiE pic.twitter.com/bwfbJk2d5R

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 21, 2019

"Flight operations have now resumed @DublinAirport following an earlier drone sighting. We apologise for any inconvenience. The safety and security of passengers is always our key priority." Dublin airport offered via social media.

The local airport police questioned aircraft enthusiasts at the airport during the incident, however, their task in locating and apprehending the illegal drone operator was greatly hampered by a number of social media users, including MrNeeson, claiming they were flying the drone over the airport.

The Dublin drone attack is the latest in a series of major international airports being targeted by illegal operations by drone users. London Gatwick was closed for more than 30 hours in December last year following repeated drone sightings over the airfield.  Just days later London Heathrow had to halt arrivals briefly after a drone was spotted in the arrivals flight path. Towards the end of last month, Newark's Liberty Airport in New Jersey halted some operations after a drone was spotted flying just 30 metres away arriving aircraft. Dubai International Airport also saw flights suspended for a short period last week due to drone activity.

(Images Dublin Airport)

Drone causes delays at London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport has restarted normal operations after a low flying drone caused departures at the worlds busiest two-runway airport to be suspended for more than an hour this evening. The drone was allegedly spotted flying low near the airport's northern runway, which had been allocated for departures earlier in the day, shortly after 1700.

The drone was said to have been spotted around 1705 on Tuesday evening, causing a halt to operations using the northern runway. The airport has continued to accept arriving aircraft on its southern runway. London's Metropolitan Police say they are aware of the situation and officers based at Heathrow are currently investigating the reports along with other colleagues.  

We are responding to a drone sighting at Heathrow and are working closely with the Met Police to prevent any threat to operational safety. As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause.

— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) January 8, 2019

Chris Grayling, the UK's Transport Minister was made aware of the situation and said that he had been in touch with the airport and "I have already spoken to both the Home Secretary and Defence Secretary and the military are preparing to deploy the equipment used at Gatwick at Heathrow quickly should it prove necessary.”

The sighting at Heathrow follows on from a series of drone sitings at Gatwick, which caused major disruption for over 72 hours just before Christmas.  Heathrow is the UK's busiest airport and operates at a near 100% capacity and some 40 flights were delayed during the hour of no departures. The airport is said it was working hard with air traffic control to get back on schedule and departures had resumed.