Bruce Crumley

German air taxi developer Volocopter was among a group of sector companies that successfully tested the integration and use of traditional air traffic management (ATM) technology with new uncrewed traffic management (UTM) platforms designed to orchestrate the flight of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) planes.

Drones flying over Lumen Field in Seattle prompted delays of two different football games this weekend, just days after sports officials urged Congress to pass robust laws to deal with intrusive UAVs to replace standing legislation set to expire October 5.

Moves are afoot in Congress to pass legislation replacing existing laws expiring October 5 authorizing the identification and mitigation of drones posing security threats. Yet a new House of Representatives bill aiming to do that reportedly falls well short of the robust proposals circulated by the White House earlier this year.

Add Ireland to the list. Like a growing number of countries around the globe, Irish authorities say they’re now working to detect and thwart drone deliveries of contraband to the nation’s prisons, and have introduced anti-UAV technology into jails as a part of that.

Researchers have announced their proof-of- concept success in testing a system using swarms of drones as flying 3D printers of materials in the construction and repair of buildings, inspired by the way bees and wasps assemble their nests.

It’s the sort of legal conflict likely to proliferate as the number of UAVs flown by private users continues to multiply. A couple in Massachusetts is threatening “criminal harassment” charges against neighbors who used drones to capture video evidence of continuing motocross races on their property that officials previously ordered to cease.

Pioneering advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft company Kittyhawk has announced it is terminating operations, bringing to a close efforts to develop next-generation electric aircraft that Google cofounder Larry Page launched in 2010.

Dutch company DeltaQuad is looking to shake up drone design – and through that, increase both performance and mission diversity – with its new Evo electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) craft that bears more than a passing resemblance to the B2-Stealth aircraft.

Though DroneDJ has on occasion both described and thrilled at the ways drones have improved the photos and videos captured of surfers carving up some of the largest or most difficult waves on the planet, it now draws attention to a clear downside of increased UAV activity over the lineup – a collision of craft that nearly took a rider out.

Aviation giant Boeing and its Wisk advanced air mobility partner have released a concept of operations overview for introducing urban air mobility (UAM) services like air taxis to the lower-level airspaces they’ll occupy.

Florida startup Undefined Technologies says it has taken a major step in developing a drone it believes could change the entire blossoming UAV service industry by using quieter, powerful ionic propulsions systems rather than rotors to drive UAVs.

Fancy being able to reach faster speeds while getting better battery performance in the air? A group of researchers at UC Berkeley may have found a way to provide that by experimenting with self-tilting rotors that keep their drone flat, thus reducing drag.

Popular action camera maker Insta360 has announced an end-of-season sale on some of its top products, including the first-ever markdown of its Sphere invisible camera designed for use on DJI Air 2 and Air 2S drones.

Just about the time Iranian drones supplied to Russia began appearing in the skies over Ukraine last week, press reports surfaced purporting a company in Israel is moving to step around the nation’s formal refusal to take sides in the conflict by ushering anti-UAV defense systems to Kyiv using Poland as an intermediary.

Switzerland’s Meteodrone is working to address one of the main elements that can disrupt or even prevent the world’s expanding range of UAV activities: the often sketchy, abruptly changing  weather conditions at the lower altitude levels in which drones operate.

This is the kind of return on investment that would cause bottom line-obsessed CEOs around the world to drool to death. According to the Ukraine drone unit Aerorozvidka, the domestically developed R18 UAV deployed in the ongoing war with Russia has already inflicted $130 million in losses of various types of enemy material, or about $670 in military assets vaporized per every dollar the craft costs to produce.

As part of its effort to scale its innovative drone delivery service business, Florida startup Zing has joined the Drone Logistics Ecosystem (DLE), which provides support to companies building a variety of UAV operations.

California drone maker Inspired Flight says two of its UAV systems have been added to the Blue sUAS 2.0 list by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), clearing the way for their procuration and use by US government and military agencies.

Just a week after Australian vertiport company Skyportz announced its plans to create the country’s first network of air taxi terminals in Melbourne, the company unveiled a database analyzing and cataloguing potential spots for urban air mobility (UAM) infrastructure worldwide.

Offering additional evidence that drones now figure front and center in the minds of military planners, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to produce a lightweight, long-flying, heavy-payload vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone intended to multiply the both number and potential mission uses of UAVs at troops’ disposal.

The US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill today that aims to earmark up to $200 million in spending for drones use in wide-ranging inspections of the nation’s aging infrastructure.