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The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced (M2EA) drone has received its latest firmware update, complete with new capabilities for mission flights and a ton of neat improvements.

London-based builder of UAV and next-generation aircraft infrastructure Urban-Air Port is expanding its UK activity through a new project with the Leeds Bradford Airport to facilitate drone logistics and delivery services to the surrounding urban area.

So, it’s that time of the year again when pretty much all your favorite brands are out to get you. Drone companies are no different, and they’ve prepared a diverse array of refreshing gags to give us a laugh today. Head below to see our roundup of the best April Fools’ Day 2022 pranks from drone brands.

The last year has been pretty good for drone pilots of all levels. Whether you are an entry-level flyer or a professional looking for the best thing money can buy, something new probably came out that popped your attention. Autel‘s entry into the consumer market made maybe one of the more significant impacts on the industry, and for that, they received the “Best of the Best” distinction at this year’s Red Dot Design Awards.

A federal court has ruled a Texas law considerably limiting the use of drones to be unconstitutional, particularly articles restricting images collected by journalists using UAVs in their reporting.

If a single person were to be designed the “Drone Meister” of US government aerial operations, it might well be Mark Bathrick – the recently retired director of the Department of the Interior’s Office of Aviation Services (OAS), who assembled and oversaw the increasingly diversified use of the world’s largest fleet of non-military UAS. Creator of the agency’s “Drones for Good” program, Bathrick spoke to DroneDJ about how those operations evolved over the past two decades and how it’s likely to continue in the future.

Wingcopter says it’s teaming up with German Airways to explore the use of drones in the delivery of spare parts to offshore wind farms. This development comes days after two Singapore-based firms announced their plans to produce offshore wind farm delivery drones that would operate at 90% lower costs than current methods that involve the use of boats or helicopters.

Leading instant logistics company Zipline has said it has made over a million drone deliveries of COVID-19 vaccination doses in Ghana, marking another milestone in its efforts to help governments in Africa and around the globe broaden access to healthcare, improving treatment capabilities through fast and effective supply distribution.

Last week DJI released a new firmware update for its flagship Mavic 3 drone to fix its crippling-slow GPS acquisition issue. Unfortunately, while the update fixed the problem for some, others still find it challenging to connect to enough GPS satellites. Here is what we know so far.

Autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone manufacturer Volansi has unveiled its new VOLY 50 series of UAVs designed for long-haul transport of flexible payloads.

FedEx says it is joining forces with California-based eVTOL cargo drone manufacturer Elroy Air to explore autonomous solutions within its middle-mile delivery operations. As part of this agreement, FedEx subsidiary FedEx Express will begin testing Elroy Air’s recently announced Chaparral cargo drone in 2023.

DJI is rolling out a new firmware version for the Phantom 4 RTK drone today. This is the second firmware update for the tech giant’s most compact and accurate low-altitude mapping solution this year. Head below for details on what’s new and how to update the firmware on your drone.

Vertical Aerospace, a UK developer of aircraft for future air taxi and other urban air mobility uses, is reporting even stronger than expected demand for its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, with a major leasing client circling back for additional orders.

South Korean developer of hydrogen power units for drones, Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI), has raised $22 million in new funding to muscle up its production of longer-flying, emission-free water-based fuel cells for drones.

Autel Robotics has released a new firmware update for its EVO Nano and EVO Lite series drones, and this one includes several new features and improvements. While some new capabilities such as Dynamic Track 2.1, 8-bit Log video, and HDR video are being made available for selected models, others features like SuperDownload would benefit all EVO Lite, Lite+, Nano, and Nano+ series drones.

High-flying drone delivery company Flytrex says it will launch fast transport of food orders in suburbs around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as part of a geographical expansion of its existing partnership with restaurant group Brinker International. 

Wingcopter, an eVTOL manufacturer and drone delivery service provider based out of Germany, has finally roped in ITOCHU, one of the largest general trading companies (sogo shosha) in Japan, as a strategic investor and authorized partner. Wingcopter first hinted at this partnership in December 2021, when it announced an investment from Drone Fund, a Japan-based venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to the drone technology ecosystem.

Treeswift, a Philadelphia-based startup that has spun out of the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Laboratory, has secured $4.8 million in seed funding to build a drone-based forest monitoring system.

Last weekend, one of Europe’s top consumer electronics chains, MediaMarkt, decided to stop the sales of DJI drones amid allegations that the Chinese company was supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine. While DJI promptly dismissed those claims as “utterly false” on social media Friday, the tech giant has now released a statement explaining that its business partner was forced to remove DJI products from its shelves for security reasons as it had become a target of online attacks.

According to company lore, CEO Blake Resnick developed BRINC’s Lemur drone to assist law enforcement and security services in responding to the kinds of horror he witnessed during the 2017 Mandalay Bay shootings in his Las Vegas hometown – a helping hand the precocious tech boss is now extending to Ukraine rescue workers grappling with the nightmare inflicted by invading Russian troops. 

Like other tech companies, DJI also gets its products into the hands of “real users” before they are launched officially. One such beta tester for the newly announced Matrice 30 enterprise drone was the Weber County Search and Rescue – a volunteer organization assigned to assist the Weber County Sheriff’s Office in the state of Utah. Incredibly enough, the SAR team was able to witness the lifesaving capabilities of the DJI M30 drone firsthand when a snowboarder became stranded in North Fork mountain valley land.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that air industry veteran Billy Nolan has been named to serve as acting administrator when the agency’s outgoing chief Steve Dickson steps down at the end of the month.