Also: Jaunt Air Mobility, Mars Helo Chief, Electra eSTOL, BepiColombo

A final flight time of 8 days, 50 minutes, and 47 seconds covering 12,200 miles of continuous flight was achieved when the Vanilla Unmanned prototype ISR UAS touched down October 2. It created the newest world record for unrefueled, internal combustion endurance of an unmanned aircraft.

The ET-CTF has been essential to the development of Vanilla’s prototype drone aircraft, trying to create a cost-effective, airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance demands for long-term periods aloft. Honda Motor Company recently released its ambitious "2030 Vision", an series of changes and projects geared towards future-proofing the company by integrating its wide range of expertise in combustion, electrics, aeronautics, and robotics into a series of products suited for a rapidly changing economy. Central to their new "mobility ecosystem" will be a hybrid gas turbine and electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, currently dubbed the Honda eVTOL. Bell’s Autonomous Pod Transport, or APT, has proved its conceptual pack mule capabilities after airdropping test supplies successfully.An unmanned VTOL quad-rotor, the APT is designed to carry two standard tactical packs, each carrying up to 60 pounds, with a maximum payload of 100 lbs. Ranging from ammunition, water, medical supplies, batteries, or fuel, the capability to flexibly resupply personnel with minimal impact to transit is one of the hallmarks of drone tasking. It can drop the bags over separate locations, if needed. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne-Unmanned!!!

Airborne-Unmanned 10.19.21 is chock full of info in this Weekly News Episode, Tuesday, October 19th, 2021... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Kimberly Kay, Sophie Hurlock, Brianne Cross, Christopher Odom, and Laura Hutson, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, and Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, this episode covers:

• Edwards AFB Completes 8-Day Drone Test Flight
• Honda Introduces Plans for Hybrid eVTOL Transport
• Bell Autonomous Pod Transport Test Drops Cargo
• Jaunt Air Mobility to Merge with AIRO Group
• Mars Helo Chief Highlighted At NBAA 2021
• Flapper, Skyportz Choose Electra eSTOL
• BepiColombo Sends First Shots of Mercury

Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne-Unmanned" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, next week!

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