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
DJI will be giving away a number of drones in the coming weeks. Earlier we reported on a contest where DJI partnered with National Geographic. Then we had the DJI giveaway on Instagram and now we have DJI and EyeEm, the stockphoto company from Berlin, working together to give away a DJI Mavic Pro.
CityAirbus, chief engineer Marius Bebesel confirmed this week that Airbus expects to have the flying taxi in the air in 2018, after successfully completing ground tests of the electric power system that they will use to propel the vehicle through the air.
Boeing pursues autonomous flight for both commercial and military purposes with the acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora is a company that develops autonomous flight systems that include perception, machine learning, and advanced flight control systems. For more than twenty years, Aurora Flight Sciences has designed, produced and flown more than 30 unmanned aircraft. More recently Aurora has been developing their LightningStrike XV-24A. This military aircraft is autonomous and capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). Earlier this year they executed a successful test flight with a smaller version, called the XV-24A Demonstrator. Aurora and Boeing have a history of working together on rapid prototyping of innovative aircraft for both military and commercial applications.
DJI just released a teaser video on YouTube announcing a new product to be released at 8pm EST on October 11th. The video is called ‘Reflections” and talks about dreams and the tension between creator and his creation. The video ends with a shot of a lens and the DJI logo with “October 11, 2017″written below. In the description below it says: “Join us at 5pm PST on Oct 11, 2017 and meet the next stage in cinematic vision.”
As of October 2nd, DJI released a new update and followed through on its recent promise to offer an offline mode. This new feature allows pilots using the CrystalSky monitoring tablets or select Android devices to fly with enhanced privacy during ‘sensitive’ operations. DJI hopes that the launch of the “Local Data Mode” will bring back confidence in its products among certain enterprise and government customers after the U.S. Army decided in August to discontinue the use of DJI drones for its operations because of an “an increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities with DJI products,” according to an internal memo obtained by sUAS News. Apparently, DJI had been working on this release for months but after the announcement of the U.S. Army to stop using DJI drone, DJI had sped up that effort.
DJI Global is giving away a Mavic Pro Drone this Friday. No word on whether this is the old Mavic Pro or the new Mavic Pro Platinum but either way it is a great drone and getting one for free is even better! DJI global has teamed up with @everywhere_co, @ourplanetdaily & @theglobewanderer for this event.
On Monday the Pentagon confirmed that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot out of the sky in Western Yemen, where a civil war between the Iran backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi Arabia-backed government forces, has been going on for almost three years. A Reuter’s photographer said that the drone came down around 11 am local time. It crashed in a busy area on the outskirts of the capital. No casualties have been reported. The drone wreckage was reportedly carted away in a Toyota truck.
From Japan to Silicon Valley measures about 4,500 miles (7,300 km), a distance well beyond the reach of any non-military drone. Enter the Pacific Drone Challenge, tasking teams with completing the coast-to-coast crossing with an unmanned aerial vehicle without stopping for fuel.
Armed with radar and a net, the DroneHunter drone will automatically hunt and intercept trespassing drones. This technology has been developed by the start-up called Fortem Technologies. The FAA has forecasted that by 2020 roughly 7 million drones will be sold in the US alone.
The DroneDJ Rewards program rewards readers with free drones, gadgets, and gear just for being part of the community. At least once per month, we’ll give away some exciting new gear to one of our most dedicated readers – DJI, Parrot, Yuneec and other drones and accessories, and much more from the brands we review and cover here on DroneDJ.
Carpe Diem and capture the moment! That seems to be the spirit and purpose of the Moment foldable, selfie-drone from the Chinese company Simtoo. It is a lightweight drone that is easy to carry with you on your travels to capture all those amazing moments. It is also competitively priced at $199 when you buy it through their IndieGoGo campaign. The full retail price will be $349 however once the campaign has ended.
In May of this year, a drone made successful deliveries of contraband (cell phones and marijuana) to a prison in Michigan and the breach went undetected for nearly two months, according to State Police obtained by The Detroit News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Flying a drone in Australia comes with an additional risk and it is called the Australian wedge-tailed eagle. These birds are the ultimate alpha aggressor in the Ozzy skies and will attack a drone without any hesitation, as Daniel Parfitt recently experienced. For a two-day mapping job in the Australian Outback, Parfitt was flying a roughly $80,000 drone with a 7 feet wingspan, looking like a stealth bomber. As told the WSJ [paywall], he thought the drone would be too large for the Wedgies, as these birds are called by the locals, but he was wrong.
Always wanted to fly a drone and capture some footage of the Statue of Liberty? You’d better hurry up as you have less than a week to do so. The U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies requested the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to restrict drone flights at ten Department of the Interior (DOI) locations. As of October 5th, 2017 the FAA will use its existing authority under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) § 99.7 – “Special Security Instructions” – to address concerns about unauthorized drone operations over 10 Department of the Interior (DOI) sites, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. The FAA and DOI have agreed to restrict drone flights up to 400 feet within the lateral boundaries of these sites:
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Today, in a live broadcast, GoPro’s CEO Nick Goodman announced the new ‘Follow’ and ‘Watch’ features for their Karma drone. Apparently, GoPro is unlocking these options through new software as the drone already had the technical capabilities. In the ‘Follow’ mode the drone will follow you (obviously), but only if you have the controller with you. As you can imagine this may be a problem for certain activities where a lot of body movement is required, like skateboarding or mountain biking for instance. In other situations, like when you are hiking, it might not be a big deal at all.
At the beginning of the month, we reported on the lower noise levels of the new Mavic Pro Platinum compared to the old Mavic Pro. At the IFA event in Berlin we were able to capture this video, that, regardless of all the background noise, showed the decrease in noise levels between the two DJI drones. Now another video has surfaced on YouTube offering a more detailed comparison of the noise levels between the two drones. For instance, comparing the old 8330 propellers vs. the new 8331 propellers on the Mavic Pro Platinum. The Mavic Pro Platinum is quieter than its predecessor not only because of the newly designed 8331 propellers but also in large part because of the new electronic speed controllers (ESC’s). Let’s dive in.
In January of this year, the Boston Police Department spent almost $20.000 to purchase three police drones, which have yet to be put to official use. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts got hold of the BPD documents detailing the acquisition of the drones after a citizen made a recent complaint after a police drone test flight in Jamaica Plain according to the Boston Globe.
If you have ever wondered what the best pilots can do with a drone, you have to watch this video. It is called “Flight of the Year” and showcases Paul Nurkkala’s drone flying skills. The footage in the video seems almost incredible. Nurkkala flies the drone on top of, inside, underneath and in between the freight cars of a moving cargo train. The train crosses a bridge in the video and that too becomes an obstacle, that Paul exploits to show his expert drone flying skills. He expertly steers the drone through and over the bridge. Making it all look too easy.
On Thursday a civilian drone, illegally flown over Staten Island, crashed into a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flown by Fort Bragg soldiers. Fortunately, the crash did not result in any injuries. The crash, however, is the first crash between an aircraft and a drone in the U.S. history. The helicopter and its crew are part of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. They were present in New York in support of the United Nations General Assembly, as many important world leaders were present in the city. Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, stated that the damage to the helicopter was minor. A rotor blade and window got damaged as the drone struck the helicopter around 7.30pm.
Skylogic Research released its 2017 Drone Market Sector Report today, examining worldwide drone sales, service providers, business users, and software services. The Skylogic report is independent and is partially underwritten by Airware and DroneDeploy. The report shows that an increasing number of businesses rely on data that is acquired by drone to run their day-to-day operations.
Parrot is on a roll! Last week they announced the new Parrot Mambo FPV mini race drone. Now they just announced the all-new Parrot Bebop 2 Power drone. This new consumer drone in Parrot’s product line-up, offers a longer flight time, up to 30 minutes. It comes with 2 batteries standard, so you can fly for up to an hour. It also includes the brand new Parrot Cockpitglasses 2 FPV goggles and offers other new features that we will describe after the jump. The Parrot Bebop Power drone is available to ship this month and will retail for $599 USD. You can buy it directly online at www.parrot.com or through one of their authorized retailers.
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Have you always wanted to try out drone racing? Well, today is your chance! Parrot, the French drone company, just launched the Parrot Mambo FPV (First Person Race) drone. It promises to be a compact, ultra-light, agile and fun to fly mini-drone, that also provides a First Person View (FPV) race experience. We have not yet had a chance to try one ourselves but we’re hoping to do so soon and report about it on this website. If it is anything like the DJI Spark in sports mode we did a first impression earlier, than it should be a lot of fun to fly.
National Geographic has teamed up with DJI for a pretty amazing drone photo contest. The contest runs on Instagram and started September 5th and will run through October 31st, and is open to US and Canadian residents only. The photo contest is for all photographers, both amateur and professional. To enter you simply upload your best drone shots to Instagram using the hashtags #MyMavicContest and #NatGeoTravel. Photo editors from National Geographic will select the five best submissions at the end of October. See here for the contest rules. The lucky winners will receive a DJI Mavic Pro. No word on whether this may actually be the new Mavic Pro Platinum.
Just like with Hurricane Harvey, the FAA issued a warning and a Temporary Flight Restriction for Hurricane Irma. This means that you should not fly your Mavic Pro drone for fun during or right after the storm as it may very well interfere with emergency and rescue operations. Both official government agencies with a FAA Certificate of Authorization (COA) as well as private sector Part 107 drone operators who are planning to fly in support of first aid responders are strongly encouraged to contact their local incident commander, responsible for that area, to coordinate their actions.
Straight from the FAA website:
If UAS operators need to fly in controlled airspace or a disaster TFR to support the response and recovery, operators must contact the FAA’s System Operations Support Center (SOSC) by emailing 9-ATOR-HQ-SOSC@faa.gov to determine the information they need to provide in order to secure authorization to access the airspace. Coordination with the SOSC may also include a requirement that the UAS operator obtain support from the appropriate incident commander. The FAA may require information about the operator, the UAS type, a PDF copy of a current FAA COA, the pilot’s Part 107 certificate number, details about the proposed flight (date, time, location, altitude, direction and distance to the nearest airport, and latitude/longitude), nature of the event (fire, law enforcement, local/national disaster, missing person) and the pilot’s qualification information.