On Monday, Jan. 28, FLIR Systems Inc. announced its acquisition of Aeryon Labs Inc., which is known for developing high-performance UAS for the global military, public safety, and critical infrastructure markets. FLIR acquired Aeryon for $200 million. Founded in 2007, Aeryon is based in Waterloo, Canada, with offices in Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. The company designs and manufactures mission-focused Group 1 UAS technology built around aircraft that weigh less than 20 pounds. 20 militaries in more than 30 countries across the globe deploy Aeryon’s family of UAS, including the United States Department of Defense.

With the development of its new tiltpod — which the company describes as a compact motor, propeller and servo with a thrusting and tilting function — FlightWave Aerospace Inc. believes that it can effectively eliminate the pitch and roll aspect of quadcopters, which will lead to improved stability for the UAS. Known for its FlightWave Edge UAS, which is equipped with the tiltpod, FlightWave says that the tiltpod allows an aircraft to hover without tilting its whole body forward, enabling pilots to eliminate pitch and roll. So instead of tilting the aircraft, only the motor would need to be tilted.

A full-service architectural, engineering, planning and surveying firm called Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc. (DBF) has announced its new in-house UAS service. DBF says that its new UAS program will provide “more efficient, safer and cost-effective” UAS-based aerial data collection, as areas of land can be scanned in a fraction of the time using the technology. The firm adds that using a high precision, professional grade UAS to collect photogrammetric data will offer its clients “ample and unique possibilities,” including construction videos monitoring site progress, post disaster evaluations, and enhanced due diligence reports.

Airobotics has announced that it recently obtained the first and only Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approval in Australia to operate automated UAS from its Remote Operations Center (ROC) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) with no aircrew needed at the client site. Remote pilots are located at a designated Remote Pilot Station (RPS) within Airobotics Australia’s ROC. They are operating more than 1,000 kilometers away from onsite systems at the customer sites. According to Airobotics, this new “man on the loop” level of operations allows human operators to supervise flights without the need for “man in the loop” pilots to intervene in flight operations.