Bruce Crumley

Drone detection, identification, and mitigation specialist Dedrone is introducing an update of its DedroneTracker.AI, incorporating enhancements inspired by client feedback to the cornerstone application of the company’s counter-UAV tech.

New York state officials are providing funding for additional drones to monitor downstate beaches following a series of shark attacks off NYC and Long Island weekend and vacation spots, and the frenzy of news coverage those produced.

Rising global temperatures are forcing authorities in France to limber up the habitual straight-jacket restrictions on operating drones in Paris, and allow designated craft to hover on high to hunt out spots in and around the capital where people can cool off.

As has repeatedly been the case in its nearly year and a half defense against Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has filled gaps – and created new opportunities for itself – within the array of commercial drones it has deployed by producing inexpensive yet highly effective UAVs, most recently with the remarkably potent Wild Hornets now being flown.

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developers Joby and Lilium have announced completion of important steps in their respective work to obtain air taxi certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Canadian drone and systems company Draganfly is continuing its energetic business development and scaling activities with the creation of a new production facility that will allow the firm to keep pace with rising demand – the second manufacturing expansion it has undertaken in less than five months.

If certain politicians in Australia are as intent as they appear to obtain permanent bans on all DJI drones used by government and police agencies, a new audit indicates they’ll be aided by a considerably smaller fleet of targeted UAVs involved than their anti-China peers in the US.

The UK Army is preparing to supply combat soldiers with a specially made counter-drone sight known as SMASH, which is designed to considerably increase a fighter’s ability to take out enemy mini- and micro-UAVs while in flight.

As DroneDJ readers casting even furtive glances at headlines over the weekend will have noticed, mainstream new outlets have finally – and, it seems, all at once – discovered the existence and spreading popularity of choreographed UAV performances challenging the lock fireworks long held on nighttime celestial celebrations. Drone show specialist Sky Elements added another notable item to that amassing July 4^th coverage by staging a series of spectacles across the US, including one setting what it says is a world spell-out record.

A UK court has handed a total of 31 years in jail time to a seven people who operated drone deliveries of banned items to a Manchester area prison, including drugs that a testifying expert estimated were worth as much as £1.7 million ($2.16 million). 

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is deploying another aerial drone to monitor boat activity in France’s English Channel waters, expanding the number of UAVs the organization has scouring shipping lanes for – among other things – emissions violations.

Up-and-coming drone delivery company RigiTech has followed breakthrough successes in France and its domestic market of Switzerland with a new achievement in Denmark, developing a specialized payload lowering system that enables fast and precise transportation of parts to offshore wind farms.

As a reflection of just how strong public sentiment in France remains against police use of drones to monitor people, officials waited well into the nation’s six-straight nights of rioting before giving law enforcement agencies the green light to fly UAVs for security purposes in response to the unrest.

China has presented a list of new rules applying to drone flight by civilian users, whose objectives for protecting public safety and national security – particularly, it would appear, the latter – don’t exactly strengthen individual liberties in the skies.

Researchers at the UK’s Imperial College London have created a prototype drone specially designed to withstand intense heat, and which through continued development may be produced as a vital data gathering tool for firefighters to minimize risk factors in various blaze-battling scenarios.

Defense and security UAV specialist group Red Cat Holdings says its cutting-edge Teal Drones affiliate has obtained a further $1.2 million to develop a new, portable UAV as standard issue equipment for soldiers, under the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program.

Joby Aviation has received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test fly the first air taxi completed on its production line – a development expected to facilitate the advanced air mobility (AAM) company’s delivery of the craft to its US Air Force client for experimental use next year. 

Up-and-coming cargo delivery drone developer MightyFly is preparing what the company calls the first public demonstration of an autonomous, fixed-wing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, with planned flights in Michigan of its third-generation UAV hauling 100 lb. of freight.

For people still laboring under the illusion that windsurfing is the staid, plodding option amid diversifying – and, annoyingly, increasingly motorized – aquatic board sports, a new drone video out of Fiji provides some updated perspective to those notions.

German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) manufacturer Lilium announced it has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its proposed basis of air taxi certification, making it what the company says is the first power-lift aircraft developer to obtain that all-clear by both US and European Union regulators.

A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a new bill in the US House of Representatives to extend existing counter-drone capacities of federal agencies set to expire in September, and partially broaden those to authorities on the state, local, and tribal level.