Scott Simmie

DJI released a new video today, providing a complete overview of a drone solar installation inspection in China. It’s pretty impressive.

There’s a lot we can learn — and a lot we have learned — from observing the natural world. Specifically, how evolution has perfected certain aspects of animal and plant life for greater efficiency, resilience and more. After seeing a new video of a hawk today, we couldn’t help but think how certain drone features mimic features seen in nature. Let’s take a spin.

You know that saying: Everyone’s talking about the weather? Well, these days people really are talking about the weather, but in much more urgent tones. There’s also another saying: A picture is worth a thousand words. And in this case, drone photos showing the results of what many scientists believe is climate change in California are shocking.

Another Wednesday, another discussion of drone-related news. The more the merrier, so if you’ve got about 30 minutes, come hang out with DroneDJ‘s live panel gang.

We enjoy Ken Heron’s YouTube work. He infuses his reviews with a great sense of humor. And, trust us, his latest drone crash compilation video is a blast.

Skydio – the US manufacturer best-known for its AI-equipped drones that can take on tasks some other drones simply can’t – held a webinar today to discuss the capabilities of Skydio Cloud. First announced at AUVSI, the platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with the rest of the company’s platforms. Let’s see what it does.

We thought it might be fun to pop into the platform and check out some of the TikTok drone accounts. And, well, we’re impressed.

Israel’s High Lander, which makes fleet management and UTM solutions, has just hit a milestone. The company has received approval for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights in overpopulated urban areas, including residential and commercial zones, in northern Israel.

A reliable source in China tells us the DJI Mavic 3 Pro release (which we guess will be called the Pro 3) isn’t coming anytime soon. The latest plans, he’s heard, are for an October release. But our source says he has “doubt” it will be ready for Prime Time by then.

A major drone light show in China ended with some of the drones descending into the audience. The descents appeared controlled, but we can’t imagine why they would be intentional.

A startup called NeXt says it’s working on new e-VTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) vehicles called iFLY and Pegasus that could become your personal transport drones.

The FAA is trying to raise awareness among drone pilots about NASA’s CALLBACK Aviation Safety Reporting system, which allows drone pilots (and others) to anonymously submit safety-related incidents. The database also allows you to view other submitted incidents, hopefully allowing readers to learn from the mistakes of others.

It’s difficult to imagine the scale of the tragedy caused by torrential rains and flooding in Germany, Belgium, and elsewhere. But drones can help give us — and, more importantly, First Responders — a bigger picture. And one drone video shows a massive sinkhole in Germany.

Record rainfalls in Germany and Belgium have killed at least 70 people and caused widespread destruction in some areas. Drone video from just one flooding location in Germany reveals the extent of the damage.

Inspection of critical assets is one of the areas where Enterprise drones truly excel. Drones like DJI’s M300 RTK can get to places, quickly, that would take a person a long time to reach – and might also endanger that person’s safety. But a drone is only as good as the data it acquires. In this example, that data is excellent.

We’ve posted before on how the demand for drone countermeasures is growing. And now, more proof: Citadel Defense locked down a $4 million contract in June to an undisclosed government customer.

The world of drones is changing – and fast. And these changes, specifically around autonomy and automation, will undoubtedly have implications for many of the commercial pilots around the world – particularly those who fly in the Enterprise space.

SwellPro, one of the few companies on the planet making waterproof drones, has a new model. It’s called the Splashdrone 4. And it’s made, as you can guess, for wet environments.

This is going to be one hot post.

Percepto, a company that produces an autonomous “drone-in-a-box” solution, has issued a news release announcing its selection as one of six vendors on the FAA’s new UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee, also known as ARC. The work of this committee will be important as the world heads inexorably toward an era of autonomous, safe, and routine BVLOS missions.

We were alerted to a new DJI blog post. It summarizes the drone giant’s efforts when it comes to safety initiatives, listing off multiple measures it has undertaken over the years. It’s worth diving into.