British Armed Forces fixed-wing drone captures images of the stratosphere

In addition to conventional drones and satellites, a new unmanned aerial vehicle capable of surveillance operations could soon be deployed by the UK military. The British-developed drone, called PHASA-35, has the unique ability to fly in the stratosphere, which is not used by other conventional aircraft.

Regulation of special operations with drones in Europe

The EU’s declared aim with the introduction of the new regulation was to create a single market in the drone sector, making it easier to provide services abroad. Article 13 of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 created the legal possibility for this in principle, the essence of which is that the licence obtained must be notified to the competent foreign authority of the place of the planned operation.

Drone with claws

The researchers used the results of their previous research to develop the claws, in which they used sensors to study the movements of sparrow parrots, and found that, whatever surface they landed on, the parrots always performed the same manoeuvre before landing. As drones are much larger than parrots, the researchers finally chose the peregrine falcon’s claws, which they 3D-printed and used motors and dampers to reproduce the movement of the muscles and tendons.