DroneDJ

Not only are drone light shows redefining the future of entertainment, but they have also emerged as a highly effective and memorable marketing tool for film and television production companies. When hundreds of light-equipped drones fly around in unison, illuminating the night skies and creating diverse formations, they tell stories that are hard to forget. This is why everyone from Warner Bros. and Marvel to Netflix and Disney has been counting on drone light shows to create a buzz around their latest venture. Take a look…

The authorities in Italy are nursing a new headache these days, and it looks like one that’s unlikely to go away any time soon. Incidents of tourists crashing (or nearly crashing) drones into historical landmarks are growing fast, with three such mishaps coming to light in the last month alone.

Joby, leading developer of electric craft for future air taxis and other urban air mobility (UAM) services, has enlarged its partnerships in South Korea to prepare for the launch of operations in coming years.

Belgian uncrewed traffic management (UTM) tech company Unifly has received a significant boost to its drone navigation development capabilities with a $10.5 million capital infusion from two Japanese investors, including one co-financed by the government.

HobbyKing, a retail site that develops and sources radio control (RC) products for aviation enthusiasts and FPV drone pilots, is being sued by the United States of America after the company failed to pay nearly $3 million in fines for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters.

The leak-a-thon of details about DJI ‘s Mini 3 Pro shows no sign of weakening, with evidence posted online today revealing a rollout schedule starting tomorrow, May 5, with a product teaser followed by the official release of the drone five days later.

Egg continues to congeal on the faces of officials involved in the notorious 2018 Gatwick Airport drone controversy – an enduring flap that may explain why a recent report of the “deliberate obstruction” of an approaching plane by a UAV in the restricted airspace wasn’t exactly shouted to the rooftops.

Now, here’s a good reminder of why following the rules should be paramount for any drone pilot. A drone recently crashed and sparked a wildfire in Colorado’s Boulder County – even forcing more than 300 people to evacuate their homes. But no charges are being pressed against the drone crew since they were flying “within regulations.”

Australian logistics and on-demand drone delivery specialist Swoop Aero has struck a partnership with global parcel giant UPS to expand and accelerate its distribution of healthcare supplies in Malawi, and over time elsewhere in the world.

A video posted on Twitter captures an astonishingly accurate aerial drop of a Ukraine bomb on a Russian vehicle – apparently right through the open sunroof – by what the uploader claims is a modified DJI Phantom 3 drone.

Update [May 10, 2022]: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is available to pre-order now from DJI’s official store, Amazon, and B&H Photo Video. Read Top 10 things you need to know about DJI’s new drone.

There’s precious little we don’t know about the upcoming DJI Mini 3 Pro, thanks to careless retailers publishing their listings online without waiting for the drone’s official launch announcement. But while those fleeting product pages gave away pretty much all the major features and capabilities of the sub-250 gram drone, a piece of the puzzle was still missing: DJI Mini 3 spec sheet.

Last week we saw more leaks detailing what DJI’s newest drone will be capable of. We also have a new drone on the market, well a “flying camera,” but basically a drone by Snapchat and more. Catch up on the top drone stories below.

Germany-based Nocturne Drones, which specializes in putting together dazzling drone light shows for customers such as E.ON, Xbox, and the state of Saxony-Anhalt on the Day of German Unity, is announcing the formation of a new business unit to protect its events from unauthorized aircraft. Joining forces with San Francisco’s Dedrone, the company is establishing Nocturne Drone Defense Systems to integrate drone detection systems inside its drone show control vehicles.

Open-source drone flight control tech company Auterion has introduced enhancements to its operating system designed to improve the efficiency of automated mapping and data workflow transmission for enterprise clients. It separately announced the integration of its avionics modules in Acecore’s Zoe heavy-lift UAVs.

Canadian startup AirMatrix, who’s dedicated to mapping out drone corridors in the sky, is working on a new project that could impact commercial drone deliveries and public safety operations alike. The company is using funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to figure out, from a telecommunications standpoint, the connectivity requirements for drones to safely operate in complex urban airspace.

Austria’s air traffic control agency, Austro Control, is relying on its longtime tech partner Frequentis to prepare a new Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system that will fully integrate drone flights into the nation’s broader airspace by early 2023.

Italian flag carrier ITA Airways is joining forces with Airbus in an effort to develop urban air mobility (UAM) opportunities in Italy, particularly for the European consortium’s CityAirbus NextGen electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi.

A small drone shows a tornado in Kansas like you’ve never seen before.

Kansas, famous for its tornadoes since the Wizard of Oz, is no stranger to the devastation caused by the meteorological phenomena. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen drone footage of a tornado quite like this before with large houses pulled right out of the ground and thrown hundreds of feet into the air shown as clear and steady as a Hollywood film…

Update [May 10, 2022]: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is available to pre-order now from DJI’s official store, Amazon, and B&H Photo Video. Read Top 10 things you need to know about DJI’s new drone.

Days after a Netherlands-based DJI retailer revealed every last detail about the Mini 3 Pro drone by accidentally publishing the product page online, something similar has taken place in the UK. An authorized reseller is showing the highly anticipated drone as available for purchase today. And according to the sale page, the 48MP, 4K/60fps drone would cost £859 (roughly $1K) with the DJI remote controller.

The DJI Terra development team has been busy this year, continuing the streak of software updates for the all-in-one drone mapping solution. In the latest release (v3.4.0), the team has decided to upgrade Terra’s reconstruction algorithms that are based on the NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing platform.

Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) has decided to use drones as another means to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure. The utility company says it will use DJI Mavic 2 Pro drones for inspections of critical infrastructure, right-of-way assessments, and monitoring more than 5,500 miles of gas pipeline in Virginia.

A key committee in the US House of Representatives has approved two bills seeking grants to prepare for expanded drone operation and future urban air mobility (UAM) services like air taxis, and is now passing those along for full legislative examination and voting.

The French Defense Ministry has selected a group of tech companies led by aeronautic, security, and transport giant Thales to produce an anti-drone system tailored to micro and small UAVs, for deployment during the France-hosted World Cup of Rugby in 2023 and Paris Summer Olympics the following year.