A drone has become an essential part of the Queensland police operations new numbers show. During the last year, one or more drones were launched 52 times by the Queensland Police Service photographic section. All flights combined add up to more than 60 hours of flight time in the last year alone.
Two days ago we wrote about an FAA-commissioned study that had been released by a team from the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE), that concluded that drones colliding with large manned aircraft will likely cause more structural damage than birds with the same weight for a given impact speed.
Chinese drone manufacturer, DJI responded to the ASSURE report, in which a DJI Phantom 3 was used, with a public statement to address some of the concerns.
The British Civil Aviation Agency CAA said that drones had become one of the most wanted Christmas gifts under the tree this year. Two million drones are already in the air in the U.K. but the CAA expects 1.5 million could be added after the Holiday season is over.
NOAA reports that drones help improve the scientific research on Antarctic species such as leopard seal by taking photos from straight above. Since the leopard seals feed on Antarctic krill – small, shrimp-like crustaceans, the size and weight of the seals are a good indication of the Antarctic ecosystem as a whole. In the past researcher would spend hours searching for leopard seals, catching them and immobilizing them so that they could be weighed. Keep in mind that weighing these large mammals in icy conditions is no easy task.
On November 28th, Amazon was granted a patent for the “directed fragmentation of an unmanned aerial vehicle” or a self-destructing delivery drone. Oftentimes patents are simply filed to claim and protect a certain idea. The actual invention may never be developed or built at all. That may apply to this patent filing for a self-destructing delivery drone from Amazon as well.
Antarctica has to be one of the least human-friendly places on earth, one could visit in terms of weather conditions, yet last week it was the scene of some amazing feats, including the fastest Antarctic mile ever run, as well as the Antarctic Ice Marathon and 100k(!) race events. The event has been documented partly by drone in the amazing video you can see below. The scenery at the Union Glacier in Antarctica, just 650 miles from the South Pole, is amazingly beautiful and the drone footage is very cinematic.
Grab a coffee and enjoy watching this short movie.
Russia is known for having built the largest airplane, the Antonov An-225, the largest helicopter, the MiL V12, the largest submarine, the Typhoon class and now they are working on building a massive drone. The drone is called the SYF and is designed to carry a 400-pound payload and to fly for up to eight hours. The drone, designed by Russian company ARDN technology, has a maximum speed of 43.5 mph. The SKYF drone was designed specifically with logistics and agriculture in mind.
Last weekend in South Beach Florida, Kenny Melendez, who flies drones professionally, was flying his drone when he spotted a large shadow in the water right next to a swimmer. He flew the drone towards it to get a better shot of the large shark, which he believes to have been a tiger shark, very close to the shore and the swimmers.
Drones are taking the fight against malaria to the disease-carrying mosquitoes in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Malaria affects over 200 million people per year and kills about 500,000 of them. The disease has been a problem in Tanzania for a long time. During one of the more recent campaigns to fight Malaria, millions of bed nets were distributed in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. The aim was to break the cycle of mosquitoes biting infected people and becoming carriers of the disease, infecting more people. The bed nets have been very successful, reducing the number of infected people from 40% to less than 1% in some areas of Zanzibar.
According to a transport minister, there have been more than 50 near-misses between drones and manned aircraft, including this one at Gatwick Airport, during the last twelve months in the United Kingdom. Drone users will face new restrictions starting in 2018. A new proposed law will likely give the police new powers to land drones suspected of involvement in criminal activity and will restrict drone use near airports.
CBS New York joined the NYPD on a mission to hunt drones in New York City. With the number of drones rapidly increasing, 770,000 drones have been registered with the FAA as of earlier this year, so is the number of drone incidents. CBS2’s Maurice Dubois took to the sky with the NYPD to see how they are cracking down on rogue drones.
Finally, Iceland has caught up with the rest of the world when it comes to herding sheep. Instead of using old-fashioned dogs, most modern farmers have moved on to drones or so it seems. Ólafur Ólafsson, a farmer in Iceland has caught up to this trend and has been experimenting with the use of a drone to herd his sheep in the cold and snowy highlands of Iceland. Ólafsson already confirmed to Vísir that the drone saves him a lot of work, although he wishes it could bark.
Honduras coach Jorge Luis Pinto claims that the Australian team is using drone tactics to spy on the Honduran team during their practice session on Wednesday ahead of crucial World Cup qualifier. Both teams are trying to secure their spot in the World Cup that will take place in Russia next summer.
The DJI Spark was used to create this dramatic video footage of the Himalayas in the Langtang Valley and Kyanjin Gompa Valley of Nepal. The scenes are indeed beautiful but, as we know the Spark’s video footage (1080p) is of limited quality and it shows. The main culprit is the resolution. It is simply too low to do the scenery any justice. Both the Mavic Pro or Phantom 4 Pro would have been able to create breathtaking 4K video footage instead and achieve that cinematic look they were after.
However, it is not the quality of the video footage that impresses me. No, it is the fact that the small Spark still flies so well at this altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level. The Nepal360 crew even reported high winds and judging by the video, it seems that the smallest DJI drone handled really well.
A candy-carrying drone fell out of the sky in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, Japan last Saturday, injuring six people, including children. The unmanned aerial vehicle was distributing candy over a crowd at an event, when it suddenly crashed to the ground, as reported by The Japan Times.
Chances are you have seen this video: “Drone used to catch cheating wife” as it has been watched nearly 14 million times on YouTube. The video shows John’s wife of 18 years, Donna leaving home to go to work. However, she doesn’t go to her office, instead, she meets and kisses some other guy in an SUV at the CVS parking lot. John, a professional photographer from Honesdale, Pa., suspected his wife was up to something and decided to follow her with his drone. He captured the whole episode on video and later on shared it on YouTube, where it became a viral sensation.
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On Friday, a Myanmar court jailed a Singaporean and Malaysian journalist together with their interpreter and driver for 2 months over drone use in Myanmar.
Cameraman Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and reporter Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia were on assignment for Turkey’s state broadcaster and were detained together with their Myanmar interpreter, Aung Naing Soe, and driver, Hla Tin on October 27th for attempting to fly a drone near the parliament in the capital, Naypyidaw. They had been working on a documentary for TRT World, an English-language subsidiary of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation.
This week AT&T, deployed its helicopter Flying COW (Cell on Wings) for the first time ever. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, 48% of the cell sites in Puerto Rico is still out of service. Cellular company AT&T launched their Flying COW on Tuesday in an effort to re-establish connectivity throughout the area. This is the first time a drone equipped with cellular technology has been used successfully to provide data, voice, and text services to customers after a disaster.
What if cell service from a drone could save lives? Earlier this summer Verizon tested to see if they could provide cell phone coverage from an airborne drone to first responders in case of an emergency, i.e. right after an earthquake or hurricane. The tests were being conducted in Belleplain State Forest under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration, which had granted special permission to Cape May to conduct the exercise. The FAA did require a special chase plane to follow the drone.
With all the drone incidents that are reported, it is easy to forget that drones can also be used in a very positive or even life-saving way. Take this story for instance where an 82-year old lady was reported missing in Randolph County, North Carolina. Somehow she ended up in a cornfield and it is very easy to get lost in one of those. Randolph County NC Sheriffs Office brought in a drone to assist in the search. The drone provided a straight-down perspective and as you can see in the video below, that makes it much easier to spot people. It took less than 25 minutes to locate her and bring her safely back to her family.
Well, I believe this is a first. During a World Surf League event at the (in)famous surf spot Jaws, a helicopter simply blows an unauthorized drone out of the sky and into the drink. Original? Yes. Smart, and safe solution, recommended by the FAA? Not so much.
Drone pilot Kevin Cadby captured a video with his drone of a boat capsizing in Jupiter Inlet, Florida. A 13-year old surfer who was nearby witnessed the event and came to the unfortunate boater’s rescue.
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In January this year, Vanilla Aircraft’s VA001 set the world record for longest internal combustion drone flight in history. It flew for 56 hours straight. That record has now been broken by the same 36ft (11m) wingspan, diesel-powered unmanned aircraft that stayed in the air for 5 days, 1 hour and 24 minutes. After it flew in an orbit for more than 7,000 miles, it landed with still more than 3 days of fuel in its tanks.
Hurricane Maria caused massive damage and destruction in Puerto Rico, resulting into a major humanitarian crisis. Many people around the world have heard and read about the disaster in on the island, but few have seen any recent video footage of the area. This is not surprising as large parts of the island are without electricity, although Tesla was able to supply power to a hospital recently, and are inaccessible as a result of blocked roads and damaged bridges. So the only way to show the extend of the damage is to take to the air. The National Weather Service was on it and send their drone into the air to capture the following dramatic footage.
