Bruce Crumley

People who still contend professional baseball is too tradition-bound for its own good should have been at Oakland’s Ring Central Stadium last Friday (or look into some of the recent eyebrow-raising rule changes made). If they had, they would have gotten a gander at the first drone light show ever organized at a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.

Reverse the presses! It turns out the drone that an Envoy Air Embraer passenger plane reported it had hit August 22 wasn’t in fact a drone. Instead, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tells DroneDJ it has confirmed the object was a balloon.

It may not be as spectacular as an emergency rescue or as glittery as a light show, but it’s the kind of action in the sky that the world will be seeing more frequently. Last week, authorities in Phoenix flew a drone to locate a major gas leak, and used video from the craft to collect information on the fastest and safest way to repair the potentially explosive breach.

French company XSun specializes in solar-powered drones – and has produced a pretty impressive craft, indeed. Its SolarXOne fixed-wing aircraft not only soaks up and stores the sun rays that power it, but also packs onboard tech that allows it to make its own decisions during flights.

It’s common knowledge that fires are now a recurring and increasingly frequent calamity in many states and countries around the world – California being particularly vulnerable. Mindful of that, a San Francisco startup is attracting customers and investors alike with its drone- and tech-based service to map homes as the first step in maximizing their protection from wildfires.

As part of the world’s reaction to the sudden and unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, vastly increased use of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) to deliver critical medical supplies evolved from experimental to habitual phases in no time. That soon may also be the case with drones flying defibrillators to heart attack victims with improved, life-saving speed.

Oh, the ways armed forces around the world are working to blast uncrewed aerial vehicles they don’t like. Now the US Army is at that again, putting the finishing touches on a laser weapon that can not only destroy the innards of drones as they fly, but also drop incoming artillery as well.

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) perform a great many tasks in countless places, with those capacities and venues expanding all the time. This week a drone was successfully flown in the UK on a less frequent mission than one usually hears about: policing areas exposed during low tides for illegal shellfish pickers.

Google’s drone delivery cousin Wing is flying high, and on course to drop its 100,000th order into a client’s hands later this week. The company’s announcement of that happy news starkly contrasts headlines generated earlier this month, when reports uncovered serious troubles in rival Amazon’s aerial delivery operations.

Officials in Colorado have joined the rising chorus of park, game, and marine authorities around the world stepping up to make the same, increasingly louder appeal: Drone flights in natural settings often result in wildlife harassment, and must be entirely avoided.

With the Biden administration sounding serious about weening the US off fossil fuel consumption, the rapid development of sustainable energy production is becoming a major industrial challenge – and giant business opportunity. One Richmond, California-based company is looking to embrace both of those with a fully electric autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can radically speed seafloor mapping necessary to construct offshore wind turbines.

An Envoy Air passenger plane reported striking a drone while departing Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Sunday, in what is the just most recent incident of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) endangering commercial craft in restricted airspaces around the globe.

It’s only fair to warn drone enthusiasts that this post isn’t about the craft as such. But if you admire DJI engineering, hate damp hair, and have a chunk of change you weren’t planning on using to buy a new drone, this brief blurb about a dryer may interest you.

The Australian pilot vying to become the world’s favorite marine life play-by-play commentator has struck again. This time, he gleefully voices over his drone video footage of dolphins seriously pigging out on a gigantic school of salmon.

A friendly reminder to readers living or vacationing in New Mexico: Steer well clear of any nuclear research facilities you happen across. That is the unmistakable message coming from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is promising to smack down and confiscate any drones violating its off-limits airspace.

There aren’t many positive things you can say about global warming, but were one pressed to do so it might be that its consequences are at least democratic: Nobody, even the most privileged, escapes its harmful effects. That was reflected last week by amped-up waves battering expensive homes on Southern California’s vulnerable coastline, which a local drone pilot captured on video.

Though the mystery surrounding the super-drone that out-raced and out-maneuvered officials chasing it over Tucson earlier this year remains almost total, details regarding that astonishing performance have dribbled out over time. Most recent of those were audio recordings of police pursuing the enigmatic aerial vehicle describing it as “the most advanced drone we’ve dealt with.”

A municipal commissioner in a small Tennessee town is facing multiple charges for grabbing a gun and shooting a drone above his property that annoyed him. Then he refused to give the blasted vehicle back to its owner. Is that nice?

US aviation giant Honeywell has launched a new technology cluster that, among other things, will permit drones to fly longer beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions and carry heavier payloads by using hydrogen fuel cells.

London-based advanced air mobility (AAM) specialist Skyports is broadening its COVID-fighting medical services partnership with Australian logistics company Swoop Aero to establish drone delivery networks across Europe and the Americas. 

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) have been widely used to treat agricultural crops throughout the world, and spray against disease-carrying pests like mosquitos. Now researchers are expanding trial use of drones to control harmful insects by dropping enemy species on them.