Bruce Crumley is journalist and writer who has worked for Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, The Guardian, AFP, and was Paris correspondent and bureau chief for Time magazine specializing in political and terrorism reporting. He splits his time between Paris and Biarritz, and is the author of novel Maika‘i Stink Eye.
Drone companies with working ties to the US Department of Defense should find out by mid-December if their craft are among those selected for the first developmental tranche of the Pentagon’s Replicator program, which looks to match the enormous weapons systems of countries like China and Russia with the power-in-numbers might of swarms of smaller UAVs.
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When New York Mayor Eric Adams announced the liberalization of permitting rules for drone operation in the city last July, he predicted it would lead to a growth of aerial services improving residents’ daily lives. One application he didn’t mention is one many New Yorkers are least enamored with: UAV surveillance by the police, which has increased exponentially over the past year.
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European urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter is experiencing unexpected turbulence in its efforts to roll out initial air taxi services around the world, with its launch project in Singapore reportedly having been put on hold just as its plans to debut aerial activity in Paris have met sharp political opposition.
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Cargo drone startup Elroy Air has announced a double milestone with the initial test flight of its C1 Chaparral freight UAV, which in turn represents what is thought to have been the sector’s first trial of a turbogenerator-hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane.
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Ukraine has demonstrated what appears to be the first fruits of its stated determination to increase domestic drone production, with the announcement it has sent over 2,000 nationally manufactured UAVs to its defense forces, along with 3,000 first-person view craft (FPV).
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Disneyland Paris is once again leading the move to expand the role of drone shows in daily performances at Disney Company theme parks around the world, with the introduction of its “Disney Electrical Sky Parade” – an innovative spectacle for which pyrotechnic devices have actually been added to the UAVs themselves.
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Leading global instant logistics and drone delivery specialist Zipline revealed it has set another precedent by conducting its the first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight in the US without any ground observers.
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Leading global advanced air mobility (AAM) company Joby may have decided to set up its future production line in Ohio as the most financially alluring locale vying for its presence, but California is looking to get as much job creation and economic activity from the Santa Cruz-based air taxi startup before its focus shifts east – and has just handed over a nearly $10 million grant to prove it.
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Toronto-based aerial services company Drone Delivery Canada announced that it completed a medical transport trial in Michigan, where its UAVs were tested for use as reinforcements to habitual ground options rather than as immediate replacements.
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The planned global introduction of air taxi services next year during the Paris Summer Olympics already risks being grounded after city authorities from across party lines joined up this week to lavishly dump on what elsewhere in France and the world has been the tech’s much-ballyhooed debut.
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Verifying that intended flights will unfold in authorized airspaces should top the checklist of both leisure and professional drone pilots before they take to the skies – a normally routine precaution that an alarmingly high number of operators near the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas are clearly ignoring.
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Emirates, one of the two flag carrier airlines of the United Arab Emirates, has signed an agreement with Boeing that will integrate drones into its plane inspections – an aerial technique designed to both speed the process and enhance its effectiveness compared to manual checks.
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As every year, Black Friday offers the exceptional deals that shoppers love to hate for leading them into elbow-throwing sessions with frenzied crowds in search of incomparable bargains. DJI is allowing its fans to avoid that torment by opening up its drone and camera products at considerable discounts through its online store.
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European middle-mile drone delivery specialist Dronamics has reinforced its strategic and financial partnership with the United Arab Emirates’s (UAE) Strategic Development Fund with a new joint venture agreement to enable large-scale production of the startup’s Black Swan transport aircraft.
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The slowly expanding use of drones by police forces in France for surveillance purposes continued its modest advance this week with the deployment of UAVs over the southwest city of Toulouse, where a neighborhood notorious for open-air drug dealing is now being monitored from on high.
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Were there any doubt remaining about how the war in Ukraine has transformed the way drones are deployed – and how manufacturers now view military applications as the most lucrative area in the sector – Airbus provided compelling evidence by founding a new US unit dedicated to creating UAVs designed for martial applications in the bustling business activity.
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Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) plane company Joby revealed it staged an exhibition flight in New York, establishing its air taxi as the first ever to take to the skies of Manhattan, and opening the way for future next generation aircraft activities.
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The advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure unit of UK-based drone services specialist Skyports has been chosen for the second phase of a concept of operations (ConOps) project by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), to prepare for the arrival of air taxi operation in the country.
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In a direct rebuff of this week’s announcement by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) plane rivals Archer and BETA Technologies on co-developing an open-use aircraft recharging system, air taxi company Joby not only insisted it’s sticking with its own battery-juicing tech, but urged the entire sector to adopt it as the industry standard to boot.
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Though Ukraine has gained well deserved admiration for its innovative and potent deployment of repurposed commercial and enterprise drones – as well as craft created exclusively for military use – its fighters may now be losing their aerial advantage as Russia shows its own capabilities with adapted UAVs.
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Next generation electric aircraft developer Archer has announced its plans to launch air taxi services in India through a partnership with Delhi-based travel and hospitality group InterGlobe Enterprises.
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DJI has been getting scooped pretty routinely on its own product releases by leakers of late, but chagrin over all that stolen thunder wasn’t why the company decided to soft-peddle the rollout of its much-previewed Matrice 3D drone and accompanying Dock 2. That restraint instead reflected a very limited market demand for such gear – for now, anyway.
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Professional photographer Carlos Gauna has earned a great many followers with his drone videos of close encounters between people and sharks in the waters off Malibu. Now he’s gaining attention for using his UAV to allow a spear fisherman avoid a potentially toothy confrontation with a Great White coming his way.
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Aerial tech startup RapidFlight says it has demonstrated a system that can transform the process – and, above all, speed – with which drones are produced and deployed, with the successful performance of its Mobile Production System for manufacturing UAVs in remote, even austere non-industrial settings.
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