Sean Captain

The US can’t catch a break this spring. As casualties from the deadly COVID-19 begin to peak in some parts of the country, deadly storms are ravaging other regions. Over the weekend, storms triggered at least 34 tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia—leaving at least 18 people dead.
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Someday, the COVID-19 lockdowns will end, and we will return to offices, malls, and entertainment venues. However, we’ll want to make sure they are free — and remain free — of the virus. Now a new disinfecting drone aims to do that for large indoor spaces.
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There seems to be an emoji for everything. And often there are multiple emojis, like three kinds of cocktails. But a drone emoji is not among the images you can add to your texts and emails. A new campaign by drone services company DroneUp aims to change that.
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Talk about an explosive idea. The US Army Research Lab (ARL) has married drones with grenade launchers. The result is a surveillance system that can operate at up to 2000 feet altitude and 1.25 miles away.
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There has been a lot of speculation lately about DJI making cutbacks in the United States. News sites have reported possible staff cuts and speculation of curtailed sales and service operations. In response to these rumors and our own reporting, a DJI representative tells DroneDJ that the company is “not going anywhere.”
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It looked for a while like the Easter Bunny would hop right over North America this year. Leading drone maker DJI began advertising substantial holiday sales in Europe and the Pacific but did not announce with similar fanfare in the US and Canada. But today does begin a week of modest discounts, focused on the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom.
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Like so many aspects of the global economy, air travel has taken a major hit in the era of COVID-19. Cutbacks in business travel, international travel restrictions, and stay-at-home orders have led to a huge drop in air traffic.

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And you thought the FAA was strict. Citizens, businesses, and local governments in Kenya have just won the legal right to own and operate drones. After a protracted fight, Kenya has legalized drones with passage of the Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Regulations Act of 2019. Previously it was technically illegal for anyone but the military to have a drone in the country.

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Fears of Chinese state spying have caused the US government to restrict business with leading drone maker DJI. The federal government has even grounded an entire fleet of DJI and other Chinese-made drones that it had purchased. However, in Europe, governments are turning to DJI in the fight against COVID-19.

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Elon Musk’s revolutionary companies Tesla and SpaceX inspire devoted followers who want to know every aspect about them. Videos of a SpaceX Starship blowing up during tests in Texas are certainly dramatic. But Musk fanatics are hungry for any images of his operations — even the construction site of Tesla Gigafactory in Germany.
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As the battle against COVID-19 continues to stretch resources, DJI has been offering its drones to public agencies like police departments to help out. The company is making 100 drones available in the US to help with logistics and providing information to the public. Here are some of the main ways DJI says it’s helping out.
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Slowdowns in trade and commerce continue to ripple through the global economy as the COVID-19 crisis spreads. Drone industry behemoth DJI is in a particularly vulnerable position. It’s based in China, the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it does substantial sales in the US, now the country hardest-hit by the disease. These strains are forcing DJI to make what it called “organizational changes” in a statement to DroneDJ. 
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After weeks of resisting, Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a COVID-19 stay-at-home order last week. Now police in Daytona Beach are using loudspeaker-equipped drones to warn residents about park closures.
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They call Paris the “City of Lights.” But “City of Cars” is an equally accurate moniker. We’ve seen a lot of drone videos of empty city streets during COVID-19 social distancing. But this aerial view of an almost completely depopulated Paris is the most dramatic to come along.
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CBS News captured a startling video on Sunday of a loudspeaker-equipped drone admonishing people to maintain COVID-19 social distancing. Now the FAA wants to know who’s behind the campaign and check their paperwork.

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Drones are already key components of the economy. Most uses must be within the line of sight of the operator however. The next phase will be expansion of flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) for jobs like package delivery. Now there’s a new camera and AI system that could make new use cases much more practical.

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The enormous hospital ship USNS Mercy at the Port of Los Angeles is quite a sight to see. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a message for drone photographers: Don’t get too close to see it.

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We’ve recently seen several cities and countries use drones to spray liquid disinfectant on outdoor spaces. It’s a fast and economical way to destroy the virus that causes COVID-19. But what about inside buildings, where liquid would make a mess and damage property? A new disinfectant drone uses ultraviolet light to kill the virus as it flies autonomously within buildings.
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Drones don’t enjoy the best reputation with the public, who often see them as a noisy, snooping annoyance. But a drone may have been a lifesaver for a hiker who got lost in frigid conditions outside Anchorage, Alaska.

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An experimental service from drone delivery company Wing in Virginia is humming along. The company says that its volume of deliveries has more than doubled since the service began on October 18. Wing hasn’t disclosed the total number of deliveries, but the growth is a positive sign.

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The US and Europe develop a lot of technology. But they aren’t always the first to enjoy it. Case in point: San Francisco-based drone delivery company Zipline. Back in 2016, the company began transporting blood supplies with fixed-wing drones to rural medical clinics around Rwanda. Zipline has since made thousands of medical deliveries in Rwanda and has also expanded to Ghana in West Africa. Only now is the company bringing drone delivery to the US.

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