Gary Mortimer's Posts (323)

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Manned aircraft stand in for Predators

Posted by Gary Mortimer on October 1, 2009 at 12:30pm

CAP_Predator_Surrogate-thumb-560x420-46847.jpg

From my fav tech website (and lots of other places, but you should know about The Register ;-) )Manned 'Surrogate Predators' fill in for robot assassinsTrack this topic Print story Post commentHumans go into simulations, but not into real worldBy Lewis Page • Get more from this authorPosted in Science, 1st October 2009 16:12 GMTMaking IT work In the real world. Is Open Source alone the answer?Robot aircraft are in such demand for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that the US military - in mildly disorienting move - is using manned aeroplanes to stand in for them during military training exercises.It seems that high demand for the services of Predator and Reaper surveillance/assassination droids overseas has meant that none can be found to take part in the US Air Force's annual "Green Flag" air bombing exercises.Read more....http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/surrogate_predators/
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Our new airframe, Voyager

Posted by Gary Mortimer on September 27, 2009 at 6:16am

Some of you might remember the bigger version of this, the Voyager is 1.2m in wingspan, autopilot, RC receiver esc and motor all stay in the centre section attached to the wing and battery and whatever you want in the nose.There is 2lt of space in there.Its early days, only 6 ot so flights but it flew and we took it home in one piece!!I have some video but I'm out the door real flying now.Oh for ballast purpose we added 200g of weight, it could have lifted much more, the target is 500g.
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Ive started as well

Posted by Gary Mortimer on July 7, 2009 at 7:00am
Just as reminder to myself, when looking back at blog posts in many years time, (am I milking this)Ordered my Ardupilot and Xbees from Cool Components, here in the UK.Bring on integration to an airframe capable of an hours flight with HD on board!I will order a shield and sensors when the later become available.
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UK RCAP meet

Posted by Gary Mortimer on July 2, 2009 at 2:00pm
Managed to maiden a new version of Airframe3 today ahead of the weekends aerial photography meet at Leamington Spa, twenty plus aerial photography types flying camping and perhaps some tall stories. Heres the RCgroups link if you fancy joining us. I reckon this will be one of the biggest meetings of RC photographers in the world.

The kit of parts

All together

Robert from Flying Wings

The first couple of flights were pretty shocking, after some ballast on the nose things improved, still as ever a work in progress. Went like stink though ;-)Still 1kg for 1 hour as a target.
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Government Grants 100,000 handed out to secret types

Posted by Gary Mortimer on June 26, 2009 at 12:00pm
How do you win a Government Grant for something that is largely illegal in your country??Helen Greiner's Droid Works Wins First Gov't Grant for Flying BotsHelen Greiner's stealthy new start-up, The Droid Works, has said almost nothing about what they're up to, except that they're working in the field of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles.) So far, Greiner has been funding the Framingham-based company herself, so there aren't any VCs to blab about what they're working on. And the company is small -- just a handful of engineers, including one superstar HP veteran who helped develop the inkjet printer -- so employee leaks are unlikely. All this makes a curious journalist sad.But when I saw Greiner last night at 'What's Next in Tech,' she mentioned that the company had just landed its first government grant through the SBIR program (Small Business Innovation Research.) I did some searching, and discovered that the company is receiving almost $100,000 to develop flying bots that can operate indoors and out. The description of the work is fascinating, so I'll share it here -- and also mention that Greiner's last company, iRobot, was initially funded not by VCs but by government grants from agencies like NASA.Best you all get onto it and get yourself a slice those of you in USAhttp://www.thedroidworks.com/
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