Bruce Crumley

US aviation giant United Airlines has taken another major step towards its future plans of operating electric passenger planes on the regional routes it serves. On Tuesday, United (UAV) announced it is buying 100 19-seat electric craft from Swedish startup Heart Aerospace while also making an investment in the firm of an undisclosed amount.

A police raid in Spain has busted a ring of criminals using a muscled-up drone to transport drugs into Europe. It’s not impossible the suspected organizers in Morocco are lamenting the arrest of their four gang cohorts less than the loss of their impressive craft.

The foundation established by famous naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell – whose books on his eccentric English family inspired the smash series The Durrells in Corfu – has turned to drones in its efforts to protect endangered animals around the world. The most recent example of that finds The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust deploying the craft in Madagascar to prevent poaching of a rare species of lemur.

Is quiet the key to future advanced air mobility (AAM) services getting off the ground – and then staying aloft? That’s what startup Whisper Aero believes as it seeks to reduce take-off and landing (eVTOL) noise with a new thruster design that will make silence(ish) golden.

Researchers in China revealed that they have developed an automated underwater drone capable of identifying and attacking enemy craft without human input. The first successful trial of the vessel came a decade ago as part of a program blending robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) dating to the 1990s.

Cue the music from Jaws, with maybe a bit of “Ride of the Valkyries” blended in for that Apocalypse Now feel. Because China has developed a two-meter-long military shark drone for deployment in intelligence gathering and anti-submarine warfare activity.

Consider it a droning mission for God. An Irish priest has said he’ll live-stream traditional July outdoor masses as a means of allowing parishioners unable to attend due to COVID-19 restrictions to follow along.

Scientists estimate some 500 meteorites plummet to Earth every year, yet less than 2% of those bodies from space are ever located – usually the larger chunks. Now researchers are seeking to up that count with drones using with artificial intelligence (AI) to distinguish meteorite fragments from regular rocks.

A leading Kenyan non-governmental organization has teamed up with a group that uses drone and robotics for public benefit in a reforestation effort to turn back one region’s steady environmental decline. Their goal: prepare and plant indigenous trees that have vanished across 2,250 acres of decimated countryside.

In the minds of many outsiders, North Dakota may be better known for its conservative sensibilities and hard-charging cowboy types. Yet it’s now drawing a lot of attention for its decidedly modern, progressive embrace of drones, as North Dakota tests the first state-wide drone network system in the US.

The good folk of Worcester, England, are up in arms – necks craned skyward – about unruly mobs regularly taking over a favorite park. And not just any crowd: groups of drone pilots who occupy certain sections of the area to film horse races at the adjacent track, and feed their video live to betting rings.

A Swiss research group has developed a drone-carried sensor that can detect the water content of terrain below, and are offering it as a cheaper and more accurate measurement supplement to existing technology like satellite imagery. Its creators say the device can optimize a variety of terrain management decisions in a world where drought and fires are becoming a major, recurring problem.

French defense and aerospace group Thales has announced the successful testing of a long-range drone prototype that can fly missions of up to 100 kilometers. The company says the uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) is already compliant with European Special Condition Light Unmanned Aircraft Systems regulations for future drone flights over populated areas.

France’s military successfully completed advanced testing of its anti-drone laser weaponry, and said the country plans on deploying the tech around the country within a couple years. Officials said they hoped to have drone-blasting energy defense systems up and running in time for the France-hosted World Cup of Rugby in 2023, and the Paris Summer Olympics the following year.

A friendly word of advice to officials and media in India still going bat do-do over an alleged terrorist drone attack on one of the nation’s air force bases: Don’t do the work of extremists for them. That’s a reminder that anyone responding to suspected terror action should remember, but one particularly worth shouting above the hysterical din still raging in India more than a week after the June 27 incident.

With its purchase of a composite glider company DG Flugzeugbau, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) heavyweight Volocopter has done more than expanded through acquisition. It has also taken a major step forward toward its goal of obtaining air taxi operating authorization from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Old-school autos got some help from modern air tech – as well as a hot-headed thief – after police used a drone to locate several stolen classic cars. One of two suspects taken into custody failed in his attempts to shoot the police craft down, adding a second thwarted crime to his grand theft auto activity.

Drones are increasingly flying faster, farther, and for longer periods of time while performing a broader array of tasks. Now they are poised to take on a tiny problem that often leads to enormous damage: plant-destroying inspects.

The German government has signed accords with authorities in four localities designed to kick the nation’s urban air mobility UAM) development into higher gear. The move follows efforts across Europe, Asia, and by some US states to both enhance and coordinate emerging means of UAM at faster rates.

Add another entry to the list of “drones for good” activities. A licensed pilot in central England is using his drone to find lost dogs, and now has more than 100 fellow volunteers helping him in that labor of love.

A British non-governmental organization is working with the government of Angola to clear mines from one of Africa’s largest and most diverse wildlife areas. Among the goals in making the region safer for all life in it is to allow tens of thousands of elephants trapped in neighboring Botswana to return to their native Angolan habitat.