Bruce Crumley

Drone delivery company Flytrex will soon be moving to expand its South Carolina and Texas operations across other US states, after it received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 135 Certification to offer unscheduled, on-demand aerial services through its longtime partner, Causey Aviation Unmanned (CAU).

Though much attention has rightfully been turned to the remarkably effective ways soldiers and citizens alike have used consumer and enterprise drones in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, less notice has been made of the increasingly potent manner fighters in Myanmar have also been using UAVs to battle the armed forces of the nation’s repressive military junta.

Another phase of drone development activity has been initiated in the UK, with the Open Skies Cornwall program assembling nearly a dozen partners to test use cases and recruit additional participants to facilitate regular UAV services along the southwest England peninsula.

German technology giant Siemens is partnering up with California startup Skyway to research and develop electrical supplies and infrastructure needed to power global vertiports soon expected to facilitate flights of electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles like air taxis.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has delivered its report on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) efforts to integrate drones into the national airspace and its methods of processing requests for operations not covered by Part 107 rules. The main conclusions of the audit are the regulator needs to do better in both establishing and communicating a comprehensive strategy for broader UAV use, and in defining a uniform procedure for issuing waivers.

Snowbirds, passionate lovers of warmer climes, and obsessively protective owners of expensive tech rejoice. A Reddit contributor to r/drones has just offered compelling evidence of why it’s ever so wise to stay way out of the cold – this time in the form of a DJI drone-cicle.

Drone avionics tech specialist uAvionix has announced its detect and avoid systems have received the second Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights in as many weeks, this time in partnership with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO).

German drone manufacturer Quantum-Systems says it will soon be supplying Ukraine defense forces with over 100 more of its specialized data gathering Vector drones in a deal underwritten by Germany’s government as part of its continued support of the nation against Russia’s invasion.

The European Union (EU) has announced the operational launch of the High Accuracy Service (HAS) positioning system from its Galileo global navigation satellite platform – a location-fixing application that becomes available free of charge to myriad users worldwide, including drone operators.

San Francisco Bay Area cargo UAV developer MightyFly has unveiled the second generation of its hybrid-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone, Cento, which it plans to produce and operate for end-to-end freight services on flights of up to 600 miles.

Swedish startup Everdrone has gotten the all-clear to extend its life-saving First on Scene Solutions activity using drones to speed automated external defibrillators (AED) and provide other support to first responders in Sweden’s vast Västra Götaland county.

Airbus has remarkable success in developing its record-shattering Zephyr high-altitude platform system (HAPS), but now the European aviation giant is now looking to bring in outside investors to help take the solar-powered drone to market.

Edgesource, a small company providing contracting services and tech to US government agencies, has revealed that over the course of 2022, it donated $2 million worth of its counter-drone detection system for smaller UAVs to Ukraine for its battle against Russia’s invasion.

It’s not something one often sees from usually secretive, stealthy intelligence services: A specialized section of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has made a public appeal for donations to its project to purchase 1,000 first-person view (FPV) drones for attack missions against Russian forces.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its report on a 2021 collision between a Cessna 172N plane approaching the Toronto area’s Buttonville Municipal Airport and a police drone operating in the restricted airspace without the required waiver – an incident that sparked controversy when it belatedly became public.

Hooligans used to be the biggest risk to people attending professional soccer matches in England, but a growing concern these days is possible frostbite while waiting for games to resume after being suspended by drones flying in the stadium.

If only haircuts were as exciting. When bull moose crave a more light-headed feeling each winter, they rid themselves of their weighty antlers with a sudden, mighty shake of the noggin that snaps them right off – an entirely unpredictable gesture performed deep in the wild that a Canadian drone pilot with impeccable timing somehow managed to capture on video.

UK advanced air mobility (AAM) company Vertical Aerospace says it has secured pre-payment for 25 of its VX4 electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) planes from Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation, which also reserved delivery of the craft when expected production begins somewhere toward the middle of the decade.

Dedrone, a leader in smart space air monitoring, safety, and counter-UAV technology, is broadening its international reach through a new partnership with G4S, a unit of global security group Allied Universal that will integrate drone detection, tracking, and identification solutions into its broader offer to clients.

Members of Mexican drug cartels are quite obviously disinclined to fret over breaking laws here and there as they go about their illicit business, but they purportedly engaged in a new sort of illegal activity in not just shooting at a peeking drone, but one flown as it surveyed activity along the US border to boot.

Defense and security drone specialist Flightwave Aerospace has announced its Edge 130 Blue series of UAVs and related tech have been added to the Blue UAS 2.0 list by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), joining a select group of craft approved for use by US military and governmental agencies.