Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone-related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, and Electrek.
Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo
Government officials in South Africa are seriously looking to use drones to secure the border with neighboring countries such as Botswana, Mozambique, and others. The South African defense minister stressed the use of drones to ”win the war against porous borders’ and to improve national security and prevent non-citizens from entering illegally.
Here’s 4K footage of the US-1 drone midair. The footage was provided by Impossible Aerospace and is the first time the company released footage of their drone in action. As you can see in the video the US-1 drone flies over a commercial area. The footage is shot from another drone, presumingly another US-1 drone. The US-1 drone seems to be a very agile and stable drone, which is perhaps somewhat surprising as it is a sizeable aircraft. It weighs around 16 pounds and measures 26″ by 26″.
Update: Aerospace Impossible asked us to replace the original video with this new one. The original video was sent to us by mistake and was not meant to be released.
UK farmers could face hefty fines for breaking drone rules. According to a rural insurer, NFU many farmers are not aware of the drone rules and regulations that apply to flying their unmanned aircraft in the United Kingdom. Breaking these rule,s unintentionally or not, may expose the farmers to thousands of pounds in fines.
A 37-year-old man was killed and another man was injured while trying to retrieve a quadcopter drone near power lines in Forest Park, Georgia Saturday evening. According to Forest Park Police, the drone accident that took place in the 800 block of Needle Drive, was reported at 6:23 p.m. on Saturday evening. The victim, Ruff Fitzgerald Teasley was trying to knock the drone down but he inadvertently touched the power lines with the pole he was using, electrocuting him. The man was taken to the hospital by Forest Park Rescue. Unfortunately, efforts to revive the victim were unsuccessful.
Farmers in New Zealand have found a new way to herd their sheep. They are now herding sheep with a drone, the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise, outfitted with a speaker that barks like a dog. The farmers say that a single drone can do the work of multiple dogs. Check out the video below for the drone in action and some of the other sounds effects the farmers use.
Last weekend, I finally got to watch Free Solo about Alex Honnold climbing El Cap without any ropes, harness or other protective equipment. In the Oscar-winning documentary, there are a number or amazing aerial shots (especially towards the end). I immediately wondered if they might have used a drone to get those shots. Later in the film, you even see a remote controller for a drone together with other equipment. And, in the credits, drone operator Nick Wolcott is mentioned. Did Jimmy Chin’s film crew indeed use a drone in Yosemite’s National Park? Were they able, perhaps with the help of National Geographic, to get permission to fly a drone and use it document Alex Honnold’s ascent of El Cap? As you probably know, flying drones in any of the National Parks in the U.S. is not allowed. Out of curiosity, I researched the documentary a bit to see what I could find out.
Btw – if you haven’t seen Free Solo yet, I can highly recommend it. To watch Alex climb El Cap is both nerve-wracking and unbelievable at the same time. Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and their crew did an amazing job documenting Alex’s journey to the top of El Cap.
Drone technology advances rapidly and so does the industry for unmanned aircraft. Around the world, people are finding new purposes for this emerging technology and new manufacturers are entering the market. However, in this case, we’re not talking about consumer or commercial drones, such as a Phantom or Matrice. No, we’re talking about armed drones for which the Middle East has a growing appetite and that Chinese drone manufacturers seem eager to fulfill.
Now, here’s a perspective that you don’t see too often: “the benefits of using drones at airports.” Almost always when we hear the words drone and airport in the same sentence it is a sure sign of trouble. However, the use of drones can also benefit an airport. Here’s how.
A drone and a search dog were used to help find a missing man in Garrard County, Kentucky. Garrard County Emergency Management credits the skills and use of drone technology of the first responders as it made it possible to quickly find the missing person last Monday. Another example of drones involved in search and rescue.
Next week, the third annual Arkansas Drone – Unmanned Aircraft Systems Summit will take place on March 12-13, with events in Fayetteville and Little Rock. The event is free to attend but you do need to register.
More and more colleges and universities around the country are integrating drones in either their research or curriculum. The University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness Homeland Security and Cybersecurity has now opened up its new drone flight research center in Albany, NY.
Over the last few weeks or so, we came across this photo of a drone-catching eagle many, many times on social media. What is the background story here? Where did this photo come from? Snopes found out. Jump in to learn more.
Anybody with a slight interest in FPV drone racing or who loves to see amazing drone footage must have come across the name Nurk. Here’s an interview with top drone racer Nurk, that was recently published.
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia have developed a new method to monitor and observe koala bears. Koala-spotting drones outfitted with thermal cameras are more accurate and less invasive than traditional animal population monitoring techniques. We have seen other cases in which drones were used to monitor and count wildlife. What sets this method apart is that the Koalas hide below a thick canopy of leaves, making them much harder to spot.
Since the recent supposedly drone-caused disruptions at major airports, most notably Gatwick, Heathrow and Newark, the anti-drone or counter-drone industry has seen a strong rise in the demand for their solutions. The Wall Street Journal just published an article on the front page of their online edition titled, “Weapon makers declare war on drones.”
DJI released another new firmware update for the DJI Smart Controller. The last firmware update was from a little more than one month ago. This latest update doesn’t seem to bring us any chocking new features but seems to focus on optimizing things like volume adjustment, photo display. It does, however, add the ability to format MicroSD cards. If you use the DJI Smart Controller, let us know what you experience is after updating the firmware in the comments below.
In the past, hobbyist drone pilots who wanted to fly for fun had it really easy. With a simple notification, they were off and flying in controlled airspace willy nilly. If a drone pilot was within 5 miles of an airport, the aircraft would take off and operate normally. It wasn’t until the pilot was within 1.6 miles of the center of an airport, that the drone would not’ physically take off if you were flying a DJI drone. Now, hobbyist drone pilots will soon be required to use LAANC to fly their drones in controlled airspace.
At the beginning of the year, DJI introduced the DJI Smart Controller at CES 2019 in Las Vegas. We had seen the controller pop up before in many official and unofficial DJI photos. The $649 DJI Smart Controller has a 5.5″ screen built-in, which is much brighter than a smartphone as you can see in Kai’s review on Youtube. Kai’s main takeaway is that using the Smart Controller just makes flying your drone easier and keeps your phone available and charged in case you need it for something else.
After first introducing Geofencing 2.0 in the U.S. last year, DJI continued to roll out their latest version of its Geospatial Environment Online (GEO) 2.0 system to 32 European countries two weeks ago. Now, DJI rolls out Geofencing 2.0 to airports across Asia-Pacific. If you’re not familiar with Geofencing, be sure to watch this video from Rick from Drone Valley in which DJI’s Brendan Schulman explains how it works.
In a statement, the Chinese drone maker says:
That’s right. Half drone. Half tank. This is the X-Tankcopter. A quadcopter drone with belts that allows it to navigate rough terrain on the ground. And, of course, when the terrain becomes too rough, you can simply take-off and fly away. The X-Tankcopter is the brainchild of Witold Mielniczek a product design and robotics specialist from Poland. After two years of development, Witold has now launched an Indiegogo campaign to bring his invention to the market.
DJI just released a new DJI Mavic Air firmware update. It is version v01.00.0560. The update focusses on optimizing the battery level algorithm. Unfortunately, DJI did not use this opportunity to provide any other new features such as hyperlapse for the DJI Mavic Air for instance. You can find the details for the firmware update below.
We were at the NYC Drone Film Festival last year and it was amazing to see the videos people create with drones. Especially when you watch them on a large cinema screen. This year is already the 5th NYC Drone Film Festival and it will be held at the Libert Science Center in NJ on March 1st and 2nd, 2019. Yes, that is this upcoming Friday and Saturday. So, if you are in the greater New York area be sure to stop by. Tickets can be bought online here.
Kittyhawk is on a roll the last few weeks. First, they announced their new Kittyhawk Dynamic Airspace platform, which brings all the data, enterprise drone operators need to know in one handy app. Now the company announces that they are developing the B4UFLY app in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A new B4UFLY app is on the horizon and scheduled to be released later this year. That’s great news!
DJI just introduced a new lower-priced kit for their popular Ronin-S gimbal. Previously the Ronin-S came with the Standard Kit for $749. As of today, you can buy the Ronin-S with the new Essentials Kit for a mere $499. This kit still gives you everything you need to get started with your photography or videography hobby or work but allows you to get in at a lower price point. You can buy the accessories that you’re missing out on separately at a later point in time. For instance, the Ronin-S Focus Wheel can be bought for $59.
Expand
Expanding
Close