UAV

Israeli drone company Flytrex selected for FAA partnership

Israeli drone logistics company Flytrex has teamed up with the North Carolina state government to participate in a groundbreaking Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot program.

The FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program pairs up state and local governments with private companies in order to accelerate the safe deployment of drones above America. The program is intended to help the US Department of Transportation and the FAA craft new rules that allow more complex low-altitude operations.

Flytrex doesn’t manufacture drones. Rather, it has created a cloud-based back end that allows customers to operate an entire fleet of drones remotely. www.israel21c.org

Regulators want drones to have visible ‘license plates’

When you register a drone with the FAA, you’ll get a government-issued ID number you can put as a note inside the battery compartment or any other internal part of the machine. In the future, though, you may have to make sure that number is perfectly visible – sort of a like small license plate for your UAV. Bloomberg has discovered a proposed rule filed earlier this month that would “require small unmanned aircraft owners to display the unique identifier assigned by the FAA upon completion of the registration process on an external surface of the aircraft.” If it becomes an official rule, you’d no longer be allowed to keep that number hidden.

As Bloomberg noted, visible registration numbers would allow regulators to keep a closer eye on personal drones. Authorities have long been trying to gain greater control over the flying machines, since they were involved in aircraft crashes in the past and due to growing concerns over terrorist use of UAVs. Late last year, the government required people who own drones 0.5 to 55 pounds to register their devices with the FAA – the UN even plans to support a single worldwide drone registry. And just a couple of months ago, the White House brought up the possibility of allowing law enforcement personnel to to track and shoot down civilian drones. www.engadget.com

FAA must bolster drone risk management efforts

The Federal Aviation Administration should improve its risk management efforts related to drone safety, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office.

FAA’s information on the extent of unsafe use of drones, in the national airspace system is limited, according to the GAO report published recently. Although the agency collects data on several types of safety events involving small UAS, the accuracy and completeness of the data are questionable, the report found.Since 2014, for example, more than 6,000 sightings unmanned aircraft systems – often flying near manned aircraft or airports – have been reported to the FAA, but agency officials told the GAO that they cannot verify that the drones were involved in most of the sightings.

The FAA is taking steps to improve its data, including developing a webbased system for the public to report any drone sightings perceived to be a safety concern and surveying UAS users on their operational activity, but the agency did not have time frames for completing these efforts, according to the report. The FAA is also evaluating technologies for detecting and remotely identifying UAS, which could improve data on unsafe use.

Fortress UAV announces new drone fleet services

Fortress UAV has announced a series of new drone service offerings for enterprise and public safety markets. These services complement the successful national drone repair and maintenance business model that Fortress UAV launched in 2017. The new enterprise and public safety offerings are meant to serve the emerging needs of organizations that are using drones or drone fleets in everyday situations.

3DR launches ground control point app for drones

3DR, makers of the Site Scan drone software platform for construction and engineering professionals, has released 3DR GCP, an Android app enabled by the Trimble Catalyst on-demand GNSS service that makes it simpler for Site Scan users to capture and use ground control points (GCPs) on commercial drone projects.

Drone survey to acquire land in Indian state Punjab

The Greater Mohali Development Agency (GMADA) has launched a congestion survey aimed at acquiring 5,350 acres belonging to 14 Mohali villages near Chandigarh International Airport via land use. This is for the first time in the state territory that the land area for development work is being explored using drones services. Data collected through Drones gives clear features to be confined, as it provides up to 2 cm accuracy.

GMADA has entrusted the 3D mapping work to the Punjab Remote Sensing Center (PSRC), a nodespecific agency. Punjab government. To implement the project, PSRC makes the services of M / s RSI Softech India Pvt Ltd. http://xbesolutions.com

InfraDrone announces release of app for drone pilot jobs

InfraDrone LLC has announced the release of their new App, available on both Android and iPhone App stores and via the web.

The App allows pilots to:

▪ Register for potential paid drone pilot jobs

▪ Register with no cost or obligation

▪ Receive notice of paid drone jobs available in their area

▪ Respond with price quotes

▪ View restricted air space maps, weather and other information

▪ Receive payment.