NASA has announced a new UAS contest that I think might interest people here. It is called the UAS Airspace Operations Challenge and it's being developed as part of NASA's…

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Last week in Colorado a 46% scale RC plane flying a demo at a charity event at a private airfield got clipped by a full scale biplane with two people in it. Apparently, the video has been taken down from Youtube but there is a short article and a copy of the video over on Jalopnik (I have attempted to embed the video above). You should probably watch the… Continue

I am setting up a lab this summer for some student research that will be similar in most ways to this one at MIT: http://vertol.mit.edu/



I would like to buy 6-8 commercially available trirotor or quadrotor helicopters in the $1000 - $1500 price range that would be similar in capabilities to the old Draganflyer V Ti. I've looked around and I would be very happy using Parrot AR Drones, but they have not set a date for releasing them or published a… Continue

Does anyone have a computer display that they are happy with when they are outdoors? I am looking for a laptop, tablet, netbook, or stand-alone monitor that has even barely acceptable contrast and readability outside in the sun.



The iPhone and iPod Touch have transflective screens (320x480 px resolution) that work pretty well in direct sunlight, so I was hoping someone had put a similar display into a larger system. There are VNC clients around for the iPhone, but that's… Continue

Now that the Ardupilots are back in stock, I am ordering what I need to get one up in the air. The FMA IR sensor is out of stock at FMA Direct until May 15, so does anyone know of another vendor that may have them or if there is an easy replacement I could order or build? It's just three weeks, but I am anxious to get started ;)



Question 2, I would like to put a decent IMU onboard to document the vehicle attitude in flight. The three options I've found at SparkFun are the… Continue