The bi-annual Farnborough International Airshow wrapped up a couple weeks ago. I've lost track of how many MicroPilot has attended. It’s certainly more than 15 years since we attended Farnborough for the first time. The highlight of the flight demonstration portion of this year's show was a loop by a C-130 Hercules. This certainly upstaged …
XPONENTIAL 2018 Has Come To a Close
AUVSI's XPONENTIAL 2018 has come to a close. This show is certainly the most important UAV and drone trade show of the year. All others are at best a distant second place and at worst not even worth walking. There were 670 exhibitors at this year's show, which is almost identical to the past two …
Top 10 Hints For Designing Drones #6
Flex is your enemy. It's important that your drone's airframe is rigid. The motors on a drone are very powerful with very fast response times. An airframe that isn't stiff enough will allow its arms to flex, which in turn changes the orientation of the motors. This makes control more difficult and it will increase …
Top 10 Hints for Designing Drones #10
Design to Requirements: Starting your design by developing a set of requirements will help keep your team on the same page. If you don't have a written description of your drone then you run the risk that each member of your design team is working on a slightly different drone. Another benefit of requirements is …
Plane v Drone
There is still some controversy about the threat represented by a collision between a drone and an aircraft. There have been a number of these collisions reported in the media, and although some turned out to be bird strikes, some are real done collisions. I believe the researchers investigating drone / plane collisions can tell …
AUVSI 2017
At AUVSI's annual trade show this year, the number of exhibitors increased slightly in comparison to last year, from 668 to 687. I'm not sure if AUVSI releases official attendance numbers. Of course, everyone on the show floor had an opinion about the relative size of this year's show versus 2016. The opinion of the …