Bruce Crumley

Officials in Ukraine have announced the updated tally of the nation’s Army of Drones campaign, reporting over 1,600 UAVs have been bought and deployed for defensive purposes using funds donated to the aerial cause since its launch seven months ago.

Canadian drone tech and services company Draganfly is entering a new business relationship with the information technology affiliate of Lufthansa Group, supplying the German unit with its Vital Intelligence capabilities for aerial use in various maritime operations ­– particularly search and rescues of people who have fallen overboard.

Among the first pieces of legislation introduced to the new Congress is a bill calling for an Office of Advanced Aviation to be created within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which would coordinate regulation of craft, pilot training, air traffic systems, and other considerations particular to next-generation vehicles that will be providing air taxi and other services.

Skyports Drone Services, a unit of UAV delivery operator and vertiport design group Skyports, is launching a campaign to train and employ workers to staff its rapidly growing activities across the globe, offering applicants an entry into what is looking to be one of the most promising growth sectors in coming decades.

Wildlife officials in Washington state are set to deploy drones over a large expanse of preserved space as part of their annual effort to estimate the population of the nearly extinct Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits.

Significant job losses are expected at leading autonomous drone inspection company American Robotics, as its Ondas Holdings owner prepares to integrate the activities of soon-to-be-acquired Israeli firm Airobotics.

Step aside, Mickey and Pluto: Disneyland Paris is about to fill its evening sky with Marvel characters during its “Avengers: Power the Night” drone show – part of its yearlong celebration of the park’s 30^th year anniversary.

Cargo drone developer Elroy Air says it has secured the purchase at least 20 of its Chaparral autonomous planes from aircraft and helicopter leasing company LCI, raising the total value of its order book to over $2 billion, according to the company.

Canadian drone hardware and services company Volatus has kept its 2022 business expansion roll progressing in the opening weeks of the new year, most recently in revealing its worldwide, multi-functional partnership with German UAV producer Airial Robotics.

As developers of air taxis and other advanced air mobility (AAM) craft move closer to certification and launch of services, efforts by national regulators to coordinate standards and operating rules have gained momentum ­– most recently with an agreement between the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the South Korea Office of Civil Aviation (KOCA) to cooperate as rollouts near.

A pair of innovative European aviation companies have partnered up to earn a chance to develop a very heavy-lift drone for the UK’s Royal Navy – a craft the duo says will carry supply payloads of up to 700 kilograms to offshore ships.

Maker of avionics tech for drones and other aircraft, uAvionix has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights within North Dakota’s Vantis UAV network. 

A man in the UK is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty this week to having endangered a World War II-era Royal Air Force plane by flying his drone near the craft during an historic airshow event last July.

Canadian diversified drone hardware and services company Volatus says it has secured a year-long contract in the UK to perform aerial monitoring of water treatment facilities for leaks of methane gas – a major contributor to global warming.

Ground-breaking autonomous drone systems developer Percepto says it has attained another unprecedented Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) authorization, this time for its nested UAVs to be used at a solar power plant in Texas to perform highly automated inspections at high altitudes.

Between the fanfare of initial announcements of intent, network planning, testing, regulatory approval, community consultation, and recurring teasers of looming launches, it can be a little difficult keeping current on the actual state of play in drone delivery activity – a haziness Walmart is now endeavoring to dissipate.

Designer and manufacturer of security and defense drones, Teal, says it has signed an agreement to use sensors produced by Canadian optical products specialist Immervision to provide its UAVs with low-light vision capabilities for aerial data collection operations.

Airspace security specialist Dedrone is again moving to expand its business to keep pace with growing US and international demand for UAV detection and mitigation solutions with its acquisition of Arizona’s drone detection company Aerial Armor.

Supernal, the advanced air mobility (AAM) unit of South Korean automotive giant Hyundai, has struck a partnership Microsoft to create cloud-based tools for use in craft design and flight simulation, and eventually in the manufacturing and maintenance of planes.  

Next-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Archer has announced a significant deepening of its industrial and strategic partnership with European automotive giant Stellantis, under which the producer of Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot, and other car brands will contribute advanced manufacturing technology, expertise, and capital to the operation of the air taxi company’s future Covington, Georgia, Midnight plane factory.

During the eleven months it has been battling Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has demonstrated remarkably effective military deployment of consumer, enterprise, and even DYI-built drones for a variety of purposes, including reconnaissance, intelligence collection, and munition drops. Now officials say the country will take that aerial innovation to another level by developing a UAV created to intercept and destroy the explosives-laden craft Moscow has relied on in its unrelenting attacks.