DroneDJ

The world’s leading drone maker, DJI, is among eight Chinese companies set to be added to official US government blacklists Thursday, according to a Financial Times report. The development risks compounding woes the company has experienced in the US over allegations of involvement in the repression of minority Uighurs by China’s government.

If you live in North Carolina, drone delivery could be coming to a chimney near you this Christmas. On-demand drone delivery service Flytrex has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to expand its operational radius to one nautical mile across all of its stations in North Carolina.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Australia has granted operational approval to drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in the country.

California-based drone manufacturer Skydio is giving shoppers who missed the company’s Black Friday mega-sale a second chance by again offering its virtually crash-proof Skydio 2 drone at a steeply reduced $949.

Might processed wood become a power source replacement for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles like drones and cars? Despite the skepticism of many scientists, one Japanese paper company thinks trees have the potential to do just that.

After months of investigations, US commanders have decided not to reprimand any military personnel involved with a wrongful drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 civilians earlier this year.

Swedish UAV services company Aerit has been tapped to conduct trial drone deliveries around the large Norrtälje area to the north of Stockholm. The move comes just two months after Aerit successfully flew its first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) delivery mission – just the second ever in the country.

A group of ocean drones, funded in part by a $1 million grant from Google.org, have been deployed from Rhode Island’s Newport to build the largest-ever set of wintertime weather and carbon data in the Gulf Stream.

China-based drone delivery specialist Antwork Technology has scooped up a cool $314 million in Series B funding. The fresh capital infusion was led by Thor Capital with participation from existing investor Unity Ventures.

Some important news for longtime DJI users. The technology giant has announced the end of service (EOS) timeline for several of its older drones, gimbals, accessories, and spares. Here’s the complete list…

Britain has been energetic in its pursuit of emerging UAV operations and services as a major driver of innovation and economic activity. Yet business leaders are warning that unresolved certification details in the wake of Brexit may seriously hamstring the UK just as the drone-driven future is set to take off.

During a search operation in the Oxfordshire countryside, a UK police drone lost connection with the controller and was found miles away in a children’s playground the next day, a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has found.

Don’t worry if you missed out on the chance to pick up a DJI FPV drone on the cheap during Black Friday frenzy; they’re on sale again for Green Monday.

The introduction of drones in monitoring fishing fleets in Iceland has uncovered a far vaster occurrence of the illicit, environmentally damaging practice of dumping unwanted catches back into the ocean than officials had suspected.

UK defense and transportation giant BAE Systems says it is making a multimillion-dollar investment in its electric propulsion facility in New York to broaden its focus from buses and marine vehicles to urban air mobility (UAM) and other electric aircraft.

What may be the deadliest storm to ever hit Kentucky likely killed more than 90 people and left a swath of destruction that eyewitnesses and survivors struggle to describe. Drone video captured the Kentucky devastation. But even from the air, it’s hard to grasp the extent of the chaos.

Drone delivery company Wing has resumed service to an area north of Canberra nearly two months after territorial ravens grounded its UAVs with repeated aerial assaults.

A new update for the DJI Fly app is now available. While the update is primarily aimed at bringing much-needed functionalities to Mavic 3 users, it also contains a quick and easy fix to get smoother aerial footage and have much greater control over compatible DJI drones.

With only two weeks left before Christmas, DroneDJ figured it was time to make another round of the main sites selling drones and take note of any nice sale prices still to be had. What follows is our best-of list of discounts still out there with only 14 shopping days left.

Some great news for DJI Mavic 3 owners today! DJI has dropped a surprise Mavic 3 firmware update that you can download now. This firmware update comes with a bunch of new, desirable features that weren’t ready when the highly anticipated drone was launched last month.

Following a year of up-and-down news, Archer Aviation this week gave itself something to smile about with the introduction of its Maker electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) demonstration aircraft. That, and its recent receipt of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Special Airworthiness Certificate, will enable its first hover test flights later this month – and the promise of going out of 2021 on a high note.

Parrot, a leading maker of drones in Europe and the US, has announced its new ANAFI Ai enterprise craft is available for pre-order through selected resellers. The pre-tax price for one of the G4 connected vehicles is listed as $4,000, and somewhat dearer at €4,000 in Europe.

A new Orwellian video released by the Future of Life Institute calls on the United Nations to ban AI-powered drone swarms. Showcasing a hypothetical future, the video’s been watched more than 3 million times – and even artificial intelligence pioneer Elon Musk seems alarmed.

While the video may not be real, it raises important questions about the future of drone-based weapons the regulations surrounding them.

Leading urban air mobility (UAM) craft and infrastructure company Volocopter has unveiled its VoloPort concept that it says will serve as a reference for – or itself be adopted in use as – the vertiports enabling future operation of electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL).