The future of cargo delivery may have just taken a significant leap forward. California-based Elroy Air says it has successfully completed the first fully autonomous, uncrewed flights authorized under the Federal Aviation Administration’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), marking a milestone for commercial heavy-cargo drone operations in the US. The achievement moves the company one step closer to deploying its Chaparral aircraft for real-world logistics missions across the country.

As autonomous drones transition from pilot projects to everyday business tools, one of the industry’s biggest virtual events is set to showcase how organizations are making that shift at scale.

As commercial drone operations become more complex, operators are increasingly looking for a single platform that brings together every piece of critical airspace information. That’s exactly what Dronetag and Airwise Solutions are aiming to deliver through a new strategic partnership.

Commercial drone operations are getting more ambitious. Instead of short flights over empty fields, companies increasingly want drones that can deliver packages across cities, inspect infrastructure miles away, or help first responders without requiring a pilot to keep the aircraft in sight. That shift is exactly what A2Z Drone Delivery is targeting with its newest aircraft.

Running a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program is one thing. Keeping it staffed 24 hours a day is another challenge entirely. That’s the problem California-based Flying Lion is trying to solve with a new Remote Staffing Service designed to help public safety agencies and security organizations keep drone operations running around the clock, without having to hire and train enough in-house pilots to cover every shift.

Drone fleet management platform AirData has crossed a major milestone that offers a glimpse into just how quickly commercial drone operations are maturing. The California-based company says it has now tracked more than 65 million drone flights worldwide, covering over 850,000 drones and 470,000 pilots. And the timing couldn’t be more significant.

DJI is betting that the future of enterprise drones isn’t just about capturing better aerial imagery; it’s about helping drones understand what they’re seeing in real time. The company has announced the winners of its DJI Enterprise Drone Onboard AI Challenge 2026, a global competition designed to push artificial intelligence beyond collecting data and toward making instant decisions in the field.

Drone operations beyond a pilot’s visual line of sight are becoming more common across industries, but safely sharing airspace with crewed aircraft remains one of the biggest challenges. A new partnership between uAvionix and Airwise Solutions aims to tackle that problem by giving drone operators a much clearer picture of what’s happening in the skies in real time.

As commercial drone operations expand beyond small pilot programs, many organizations are discovering that flying the aircraft is only part of the challenge. Managing pilots, equipment, approvals, compliance, risks, and thousands of flight records can quickly become overwhelming, especially as Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations become more common. That’s the problem Finland-based FlybyOps says it’s solving with its newly launched enterprise drone operations platform.

The DJI Mini 5 Pro isn’t a military drone. And the Air 3S certainly isn’t something most people would associate with the battlefield. Yet these, and several other popular DJI drone models, could potentially get caught in the Federal Communications Commission’s latest drone crackdown.

Canadian police and defense agencies have a new option for running one of their key situational-awareness tools without sending sensitive operational data to a foreign cloud provider.

Wildfire response can get complicated fast. There are drones in the air, crews on the ground, dispatch information coming in, and, increasingly, huge areas of smoke making it harder to see what is happening. BRINC is now trying to put at least one more piece of that puzzle in the same place.

When community leaders first proposed using drones to help protect residents, not everyone was convinced. Some questioned the cost. Others worried about privacy. But then the drones started finding missing people, guiding first responders, and responding to emergencies in seconds instead of nearly an hour.

Imagine a cargo aircraft that can take off like a helicopter, fly long distances like an airplane, and do it all without a pilot onboard. That’s the idea behind Halo, Archer Aviation’s new autonomous hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft built to transport heavy payloads to places where traditional aircraft often can’t operate.

Drone pilots who create maps, 3D models, or inspection reports just got a significant new set of tools. DJI has released one of the biggest updates yet for its Terra mapping software, adding thermal mapping, video-based reconstruction, an AI assistant, and several features designed to make drone data easier to process and analyze.

For companies deploying drones across Europe, getting regulatory approval is often a much bigger challenge than the technology itself. While modern drone platforms are already capable of complex beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions, operators still need to prove to regulators that those flights can be carried out safely. DJI is hoping to make that process easier.

DJI has introduced a new safety accessory for its flagship Matrice 400 enterprise drone, giving operators an added layer of protection during emergency situations. The new DJI AP100 Parachute is designed to reduce the impact of an in-flight failure by safely lowering the aircraft to the ground, helping protect expensive payloads while also reducing risks to people and property below.

Australian drone mapping company Emesent has secured $17 million in new funding to accelerate its push into AI-powered autonomous operations, betting that smarter software — not just better hardware — will drive the next phase of industrial drone adoption.

When an avalanche strikes in the French Alps, rescuers are racing against a brutal clock. Survival rates fall sharply after about 20 minutes, making every second between the emergency call and locating a victim incredibly valuable.

DJI is preparing to close the chapter on another batch of legacy enterprise hardware, giving drone operators one final reminder that support for four older products will officially end on September 1, 2026.

Everyone loves a tool that just makes your job easier. Technology can takeover plenty of little things in life like taking notes, scheduling meetings, and well, you get the point. But what about counting extremely expensive herds of cattle? Don’t worry, DJI’s Mavic 3 Enterprise is here.

Just one year after shipping its first production Dock system, Skydio says it has crossed an important milestone for autonomous drone operations: more than 1,000 Dock installations are now deployed in the field.

For years, the Mexican city of Celaya was known for all the wrong reasons. Once ranked among the country’s most dangerous cities, it struggled with violent crime and an emergency response system that often left police reacting instead of preventing incidents. Now, city officials say a combination of autonomous drone technology and integrated command-and-control systems is helping rewrite that story.

DJI has announced an important certification update for its Matrice 4D drone series in Europe. The company’s enterprise drones are now covered by C6 certification even when operated directly with the DJI RC Plus 2 Enterprise controller, rather than exclusively through the DJI Dock 3.