Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky subsidiary has received a potential one-year, $35.7 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the third phase of a program that seeks to develop a removable kit prototype designed to automate aircraft’s co-piloting functions. Sikorsky will produce and install prototypes on various types of aircraft for flight demonstrations under DARPA’s Aircrew […] More

Technavio has released a new report that indicates the global military vertical take-off and landing aircraft market will reach a compound annual growth rate of nearly 4 percent from 2016 through 2020. Technavio said Wednesday the market is segmented into military powered-lift VTOL aircraft and military rotorcraft VTOL aircraft market, with the former accounting for […] More

Lockheed Martin‘s Sikorsky subsidiary has completed Phase 1 of a previously awarded $8 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract under the agency’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System program. Lockheed said Tuesday Sikorsky has demonstrated its ALIAS system through a 30-mile autonomous flight with the use of a tablet device to operate a Sikorsky S-76 commercial helicopter. The designated Sikorsky […] More

A new report from Research and Markets  predicts the global market for civilian drones to experience a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent over the next four years. Demand for civilian unmanned aerial systems for use in crop surveillance operations will drive market growth, the firm said Tuesday. Risks of accidents posed by such drones to […] More

Business information provider Visiongain has unveiled its list of top 20 unmanned aerial vehicles and systems manufacturers in the world. The report predicts the specialties companies will choose in the field and how new players will try to stake a claim on a market that could undergo key structural changes amid an emergent commercial UAVs segment, Visiongain said Monday. “Although increasingly competitive, the […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will start evaluating four proposed vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft designs by the end of next month, IHS Janes’s 360 reported Wednesday. Gareth Jennings writes that Brian Ritter, a program manager at Boeing, told reporters Tuesday that DARPA will review VTOL X-Plane prototypes from Boeing, Aurora Flight Sciences, Karem and Sikorsky. DARPA […] More

Steve Williams, capability manager for Finmeccanica‘s airborne and space systems division, has said his company developed its Falcon Shield system to help reduce the risks from small unmanned aerial vehicles, Defense News reported Monday. Lara Seligman writes Falcon Shield is designed as a modular system to ward off drone threats in small areas and large infrastructures. Williams […] More