U.S. Laser Downs Cartel Drones, 737 Drone Near-Miss & Amazon Expands

Episode 451 of UAV News Talk begins with its Video of the Week, showing what looks like a “shark superhighway” off the North Carolina coast. Hundreds of sharks can be seen traveling in surprisingly orderly streams in both directions close to shore, providing another example of how drones can reveal things that would be almost impossible to appreciate from ground level.

The first major news story involves the U.S. military’s growing use of directed-energy weapons for counter-UAS operations. An Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser system was used to shoot down three drones along the southern border that officials said were associated with cartel activity. Authorities say drones in the region have been used for activities including surveillance and support of smuggling operations. Max and David discuss both the effectiveness and potential hazards of these systems, including an earlier incident in which a U.S. Customs and Border Protection drone was accidentally shot down. Counter-drone technology is becoming operational rather than experimental, but identifying the correct target remains critical.

A second counter-UAS story illustrates an entirely different hazard. During a German Bundeswehr counter-drone exercise near Cologne/Bonn Airport, an Autel quadcopter came extraordinarily close to a landing Ryanair Boeing 737. Recorded data showed the drone only about 28 meters—roughly 92 feet—above the aircraft and about nine meters, or 30 feet, away horizontally.

What makes the incident especially interesting is that the drone flight was authorized and coordinated with air traffic control. The problem appears to have been a breakdown in how the restrictions were understood. Coordination emphasized helicopters and VFR aircraft without adequately protecting IFR airline traffic. The drone operator ultimately saw the approaching 737 and maneuvered away. Max points out just how difficult it is for pilots of manned aircraft to visually acquire a small drone, even when they know one is nearby.

David then takes a historical detour to remind listeners that military UAV operations are hardly new. During the Vietnam War, AQM-34 Firebee reconnaissance drones operated over heavily defended territory while aircraft including the EB-66 provided electronic warfare support. DC-130 Hercules aircraft served as launch platforms for the drones. The story demonstrates that many of the concepts now associated with modern unmanned warfare have roots stretching back many decades.

On the commercial side, Amazon continues pushing aggressively toward large-scale Prime Air drone delivery. New operations involving Tracy, California, and Richmond, Virginia, emerged even though neither location appeared on a recently released list connected with Amazon’s goal of reaching hundreds of communities. Max and David discuss Amazon’s MK30 aircraft, a large six-motor delivery drone that is dramatically different from a small consumer quadcopter.

They also explore some of the practical questions surrounding drone delivery. How are orders divided when only some items qualify for drone delivery? Can a drone serve more than one customer during a flight, or must it return to its base after every package? Those details will become increasingly important as operators try to make drone delivery efficient at large scale.

Another California company, SiFly, has raised $20 million to move its Q12 long-endurance quadcopter toward production. The company hopes to manufacture about 1,000 aircraft in the coming year. Particularly striking is the Q12’s demonstrated endurance: more than three hours of flight from a conventional-looking quadcopter with no aerodynamic wing. The aircraft still uses Chinese motors, illustrating how difficult it remains to develop a completely domestic U.S. drone supply chain even as restrictions push manufacturers away from Chinese electronics and complete aircraft.

Those restrictions have not yet displaced DJI from many commercial markets. A survey of construction-industry drone users found DJI aircraft represented roughly 97 percent of respondents’ primary drones. Construction is particularly well suited to camera-equipped quadcopters for progress documentation, inspection, mapping, and marketing, and DJI remains deeply entrenched in that segment.

Meanwhile, Alphabet-owned Wing is evaluating Nvidia’s Jetson Orin Nano 2 for future delivery-drone applications. With approximately 78 trillion AI operations per second, the small onboard computer could give aircraft significantly greater ability to interpret sensor data and react locally without relying on cloud computing. Wing already uses onboard automation to evaluate delivery areas for obstacles and reposition before lowering packages, and additional computing power could make those capabilities considerably more sophisticated.

Advanced air mobility is also getting new physical infrastructure. Wisk is involved in development of a 100-by-100-foot autonomous-aircraft vertiport at Hollister Municipal Airport in California. The facility is intended as a testbed for terminal procedures, precision landing systems, and autonomous and eVTOL operations.

But landing space may not be the biggest infrastructure issue facing eVTOLs. Electrical power could become the real bottleneck. A vertiport receiving 10 or 20 aircraft during a morning rush may need to recharge many of them simultaneously. Archer has previously discussed charging capability on the order of 350 kilowatts as a minimum level of infrastructure, with even greater power requirements possible as operations scale.

That means building a vertiport involves far more than putting an electric charger next to a helipad. Airports and cities may need substantial upgrades to transformers, distribution systems, and connections to the larger electrical grid. Aircraft technology may be moving rapidly, but getting enough electricity to the places where those aircraft operate could ultimately determine how quickly the eVTOL industry can grow.