Volansi completed a $50 million Series B financing round led by Icon Ventures to continue development of its autonomous vertical takeoff and landing cargo drones. Other participants in the round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, YCombinator, Harpoon Ventures OnePlanet, Graphene Ventures and ...

Anduril Industries this week released Ghost 4, the latest iteration of its American-made small UAS designed for military and commercial use. According to company founder Palmer Luckey, it is “the best drone there is.” Designed like a skeleton of a helicopter, Anduril opted for a single rotor ...

The Federal Aviation Administration will select four airports nationwide to host some of its testing and evaluation of drone detection and mitigation systems as the agency works toward eventually publishing standards around safe and effective use of such systems near airports. On Aug. 21, the FAA ...

Leadership from the U.S. Air Force observed a manned demonstration of an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft last week near Austin, Texas. Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett and Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr. were on hand to witness LIFT Aircraft’s HEXA, a ...

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based autonomy systems integrator Near Earth Autonomy is partnering with Kaman Aerospace [KAMN] and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to develop an autonomy system specifically for the K-MAX helicopter, but with broad applicability to large vertical take-off-and-landing (VTOL) ...

With Congress poised to ban all U.S. government purchasing of Chinese drones and components, the Department of Defense is leveraging its small UAS prototyping efforts with industry to offer trusted and vetted options to military and federal customers. The new effort by the Defense Innovation Unit ...