Bruce Crumley

As efforts increase to battle what is turning out to be another merciless summer of wildfires in California, local firefighter officials are getting a hand from the FBI to detect, track, and ground drones being flown illegally around blazes, according to an exclusive report by CNN.

Developer of the autonomous air taxi and advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicle EH216S, EHang, has struck a long-term partnership with the Guangzhou Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, bringing with it a credit line of nearly $150 million.

Much attention has been directed to the remarkable success of Ukraine forces repurposing commercial and enterprise UAVs to attack incomparably better-armed Russian troops invading the nation. Yet elsewhere in Ukraine, drones are providing critical work for humanitarian and other non-combat operations as well, including craft Canadian company Draganfly is supplying to detect the rising number of Russian-laid landmines.

London-based developer of the VX4 electric takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) Vertical Aerospace has signed on E-One Moli Energy Corp. to design and supply the ion-lithium batteries that will power its future air taxis.

Flight navigation tech specialists Iris Automation and Sagetech Avionics are teaming up to provide a one-stop shopping solution to ensure cooperative and noncooperative detection and air risk mitigation for both drones and crewed aircraft.

Leading US power utility Dominion Energy has obtained a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver to operate open-ended beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) inspections at over 40 plants using drones from Skydio, whose regulatory team helped secure the approval.

UAV sensor specialist Censys Technologies has closed an over-subscribed Series A Funding round that generated $8.3 million ­– capital the company will use to accelerate its transformation from a drone services company to a provider of what it calls airborne intelligence.

The broadening deployment of UAVs for rapidly diversifying purposes in recent years has allowed operators to get eyes on – and in – places that were previously inaccessible, when not intentionally shut away from outside observers. Among organizations that have taken to the skies for closer looks are animal rights activists, who now operate drone missions to obtain video evidence of inhumane treatment of livestock on massive “factory farms.”

A criminal transport and logistics crew has been nabbed by Spanish police with vehicles being readied for delivery to drug traffickers smuggling narcotics across the Mediterranean – a haul that netted both aerial drones and uncrewed underwater vehicles with potential payload capacities of up to 200 kgs.

Even as the ink dries on a $48 million deal to supply Norway with intelligence-gathering Black Hornet drones, California’s Teledyne Technologies is also moving quickly to make delivery on over 100 ground robots it has contracted with Germany’s army.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has released what it calls the world’s “first comprehensive” set of proposed regulations for next generation aerial urban mobility (UAM) aircraft like air taxis that will operate in city environments.

A group of brainy volunteers in Kyiv producing drones for deployment by Ukraine’s army against Russian invaders have added trashed e-cigarette batteries to their mix of DYI materials being used in support the nation’s defense.

A drone platform based in Shannon, Ireland, will host a project to research and test a wide range of UAV business and public service applications within a project to develop a fully integrated uncrewed traffic management system (UTM).

A startup in Western Ukraine has developed an anti-drone gun it says can drop Russian craft over two miles away, making the locally produced device a potentially lifesaving defense asset for troops battling repurposed Russian consumer UAVs.

Eve, Embraer‘s urban air mobility (UAM) division, says it has signed a deal with a subsidiary of Kenya Airlines for the acquisition of up to 40 electric takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), with initial deliveries expected in 2026.

Developer of next generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Archer Aviation, says testing of its Maker air taxi prototype is progressing so well it believes it can start full transition trial flights by the end of this year.

Aerial geophysical mapping specialist Overhead Intelligence has used a drone equipped with Iris Automation safety avionics tech to operate a combined extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) magnetometer survey mission over a wide area of Canadian mineral deposits.

Less than a week after it received Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certification allowing it to operate in the US as a commercial airline, instant logistics specialist Zipline launched regular drone delivery service of medical supplies and prescriptions in North Carolina, in support of its three major healthcare partners.

Moves are under way to create the first mass-scale UAV manufacturing operation in Russia, though details of that effort make it unlikely it will compensate for the worsening shortage of commercial drones in the country, as store-bought craft continue being snapped up and sent off to the war effort in Ukraine.

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is teaming up with Munich Airport International in a project to offer a full range of advanced air mobility (AAM) solutions – from electric vertical takeoff and landing craft (eVTOL) to vertiport infrastructure – to cities and regions around the globe looking to develop looming next-generation aircraft services like air taxis.

Officials in Kenya will be deploying drones over construction sites across the country as part of a monitoring program to both ensure full compliance with building codes, in addition to cracking down on contractors working without proper permits.