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German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Lilium says it has secured a deal with a UK air services provider for 10 confirmed orders for the Pioneer Edition of its advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles, and an option for another 10 – nearly half of the 50 luxury planes the company plans to produce.

Ohio-based drone manufacturer Event 38 says that its latest fixed-wing mapping drone E400 is now available with a gimbaled Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) camera from NextVision. This new integration makes the E400 apt for time-critical scenarios such as search and rescue, emergency management, and disaster response.

DJI has released new firmware updates for two of its enterprise series drone: the M300 RTK and the Matrice 30 (M30).

In a move that will have only minor effects on its own – but which could have larger consequences were it to be replicated around Europe, especially in terms of drone use – the Baltic nation of Lithuania has responded to increasing international instability by banning the purchase of tech from countries deemed untrustworthy, including China, for defense or public service operation.

German drone manufacturer Quantum-Systems has struck a partnership with forest management provider SKYLAB to allow customers to understand the state of their forestry assets better.

Japan is relaxing its drone regulations from today to allow automated, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights over residential areas. The idea is to boost drone delivery services since the logistics industry is facing a serious shortage of drivers.

In the mere two days since the last post on the topic, online leakers have provided even more images and additional specs of DJI’s Mini 3 – including a shot of the officially inexistent (or at least assiduously unacknowledged) drone on sale in a US store. Given their success in fleshing the product out over the past few weeks, it’s perhaps only logical one sleuth has now also beaten DJI to teasing a likely launch date: December 9.

With the SkyPixel Annual Photo & Video Contest currently ongoing, tech giant DJI and its social media arm SkyPixel are celebrating the work of drone creators with weekly selections. The photos being featured typically follow a theme and are meant to inspire fellow drone users to get out there and get clicking. The themes for weeks 1 and 2 are drone portraits and creatures, respectively.

Gremsy, one of the most popular developers of camera gimbal stabilizers, is expanding its product portfolio with the company’s first-ever drone payload Zio. It’s a high-resolution zoom payload that can be best utilized in industrial applications such as asset inspections, surveying, and public safety jobs.

There’s no holding a determined drone leaker back – or that would at least seem to be the case following another visual offering of the step-down Mini 3 that DJI is rumored to be developing as a more affordable option to its Mini 3 Pro.

Next-generation aircraft developer Archer passed another milestone in what had already been an eventful year for the company, with its Maker prototype electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft making its first full transition flight this week.

So, here’s some good news for DJI drone users who regularly find themselves getting perplexed by reports of a purported “Chinese drone spy threat.” A new independent audit of DJI Mavic 3, Mini 2, and Air 2S drones, as well as the DJI Fly app for iOS and Android, has found that the products fulfill key cybersecurity and privacy protection requirements established by both the US and Europe.

UK electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft infrastructure specialist Skyports is teaming up with multinational private airport operator Corporación América Airports (CAAP) to develop a network of vertiports across Latin America.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted a production certificate to California-based Matternet for its M2 delivery drone. This makes Matternet the first and, at present, the only company able to produce certified delivery drones in the US.

Hot on the heels of the rollout of its more affordable Mavic 3 Classic last month, DJI looks poised to replicate the same step-down strategy of its drone development with a rumored Mini 3 launch.

Remotely piloted drone tech and services company Skypersonic has made delivery of its specially designed and tested hardware and software package to NASA for use in a year-long simulated Mars mission.

The European Commission is moving to accelerate the use and diversification of UAV services across the European Union (EU) with the adoption of its Drone Strategy 2.0, which, in addition to tapping into what’s expected to be a vigorous growth area, seeks to reduce the opportunities for malevolent actors to abuse the technology.

Continuing its recent growth and acquisition spree, Canadian drone firm Volatus Aerospace has signed a new agreement, agreeing to buy New York-based UAS distributor and integrator Empire Drone Company.

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, or FAI, has selected South Korea as the host of the 2023 World Drone Racing Championship. The competition, the biggest of its kind, comes with a prize pool of $100,000.

Action 3, the first action camera from DJI that natively supports fast-charge technology (powering up to 80% in just 18 minutes), has received a ton of new features and improvements today through a firmware update.

The operational footprint and activity range of drone development organization, Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR), is set to get considerably larger through its participation in a new US-Canadian consortium aiming to create what it calls “the first international advanced air mobility (AAM) corridor” between New York and Quebec.

So much for the abide-no-rules rock and roll attitude. Whoever said UAVs produced some of the world’s loudest whining hadn’t heard Guns ‘N Roses singer Axl Rose complain about drone flights at the group’s recent concerts for having distracted him, rather than for posing potential (and illegal) danger to his fans.

Diversified aerial tech group Red Cat Holdings is moving to tighten its range of activities with the announcement it will sell its two consumer drone divisions, Rotor Riot and Fat Shark, to focus on the military and security activities of its surging Teal unit.