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Blainjett Aviation announced that initial testing of its hemi-rotor aerodynamic concept has confirmed its potential to deliver faster, more efficient performance in VTOL aircraft. Subscale tests demonstrated the novel configuration’s net positive lift and low drag through the ascent/hover, cruise, and descent/hover phases of flight.

The startup is applying the hemi-rotor concept to a subscale drone as part of a path to demonstrating that the configuration can scale to larger unmanned or manned aircraft in eVTOL applications from package delivery and cargo to transport and tactical military roles. Blainjett’s hemi-rotor design situates familiar vertical lift rotors partially inside opposite sides of an enclosed fuselage. The airfoil-shaped fuselage also houses a pair of electric motors to drive the lift-rotors. Situated in the empennage above an inverted V-tail, the third motor powers a pusher prop.

In a hover, conventional open-rotors generate an even amount of lift all the way around. But when a traditional rotorcraft flies forward, its rotor blades both advances forward into the relative wind and retreat from it during rotation. This yields a dissymmetry of lift on opposing sides of the rotor arc, eventually creating a hard speed limit.

Saildrone/NOAA

Recently, the collaboration between the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Saildrone, a company that develops sailing drones, did exactly that. They sent a robot into Hurricane Fiona, the tropical storm that has deluged Puerto Rico and is now headed towards Canada’s east coast, Mashable reported.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has turned a lot of assumptions about the fundamental nature and trajectory of how wars are fought, on its head.

For one thing, Ukraine’s strong defense has upended conventional wisdom about big powers being able to violate at will the sovereignty of little powers.

Technology, in particular, drones, has also leveled the playing field in unique ways.

The emergence of cryptocurrency, both as a means to fund the war and the relief efforts, raises all kinds of interesting questions about the ability to enforce sanctions and bypass the traditional financing of wars with alternate means.

I had a great discussion about these and other topics with Thomas Frey, and Trent Fowler, who have been giving a lot of thought to the future of war.

Frey is the founder and Executive Director of the DaVinci Institute and co-host of the Futurati Podcast. Over the past decade, he has built an enormous following around the world based on his ability to develop accurate visions of the future and describe the opportunities ahead.

The technology, which has been tested in the lab, could ultimately be used for manufacturing and building in difficult-to-access or dangerous locations such as tall buildings or help with post-disaster relief construction, say the researchers.

3D printing is gaining momentum in the . Both on-site and in the factory, static and print materials for use in , such as steel and .

This new approach to 3D printing—led in its development by Imperial and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology—uses flying robots, known as , that use collective building methods inspired by natural builders like bees and wasps who work together to create large, intricate structures.

Florida’s “silent” flying dish-rack, powered by ionic propulsion, is on track for commercial rollout in 2024, according to Undefined Technologies, which has released new outdoor flight test video. We remain curious, but unconvinced it’ll be viable.

The “Silent Ventus” drone doesn’t use propellers to fly. Instead, its entire broad structure creates two stacked grids of electrodes, designed to create high-voltage electric fields that can ionize the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air, freeing electrons to give them a positive charge, and then propelling these downward to create an “ionic wind” that can produce thrust.

It’s not new; ionic propulsion has been used in space, and as we pointed out when we first saw the Silent Ventus drone project, for a few very small-scale terrestrial projects as well, one of which was used to levitate Orville the mouse in 2003. Undefined says its “Air Tantrum” technology yields “higher levels of thrust, up to 150% compared to current ion thruster technologies.”

The drones will help the construction industry in hard-to-reach and dangerous places.

Consider the drone bees. These bees, which probably gave their name to today’s drones, are also may have inspired by their physical features. Let’s learn how.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Empa have created a fleet of bee-inspired flying drone printers for 3D printing buildings.

Cheerwing, was founded in 2017 and began to sell RC hobby products, like rc car, rc boats, rc helicopter, rc drones. Since 2017, we have tried to provide more kinds of rc toys for all kinds of customers with different design and updated functions to meet different needs of customer.

We have professional manufacturers with well-equipped facilities and excellent quality control throughout all the stages of production…Cheerwing are devoted to offering high quality product and outstanding after-sales service to keep our customer satisfied.

The California-based Matternet has been testing its Model M2 drone over the past four years in the US as part of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program. Matternet says getting the green light from the FAA could help streamline the process of “implementing new networks and getting approvals.”

Matternet partnered with UPS in 2019 to deliver medical supplies in North Carolina, and later started delivering prescriptions in Florida. Matternet also expanded its footprint to Switzerland, where it teamed up with the Swiss Post to deliver lab samples and blood tests. The program was briefly suspended in 2019 after its drones suffered two crashes in the country, but Matternet has since announced that it’s taking over the Swiss Post’s drone delivery program starting in 2023.

In a statement, the FAA says Matternet’s Model M2 drone “meets all federal regulations for safe, reliable and controllable operations and provides a level of safety equivalent to existing airworthiness standards applicable to other categories of aircraft.” The four-rotor drone’s been approved to carry four-pound payloads and fly at an altitude of 400 feet or lower with a maximum speed of 45mph.

Iran’s recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence.

The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf.

The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29–30 and September 1.