DroneDJ

Mavic 3, the new flagship drone from DJI, has again made an appearance online ahead of its November 5 launch. New photos leaked today seem to suggest that Mavic 3 shipments have started to reach dealers.

If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. That, apparently, is the attitude of Brussels Airport, which has taken a 50% stake in a specialized service startup that provides safe and efficient operation of the very drones currently banned in the air around Belgium’s busiest aviation hub.

Leading global drone delivery company Wing is undertaking more innovation of its operational model by introducing store-prepared orders in new service to the Dallas-Fort Worth area – its biggest urban market to date.

Ronin 4D, the cinematography system DJI launched today, may have been designed to provide an extraordinary imaging technology experience to filmmakers, but there are several innovations that the cinema camera borrows from DJI’s experience with drones. Let’s take a look…

Update: DJI Action 2 camera is available to buy now on Amazon

Today may be the day DJI unveils its first-ever professional camera system, but a major leak has revealed plenty about another forthcoming product: the DJI Action 2 camera. This leak contains many images of the actual product as well as detailed specifications and features. Hop on…

Is it just us? Or are the weeks flying by? Either way, it’s Wednesday again. And you know what that means… time once again for the DroneDJ live panel.

As the backlash against it continues to grow, DJI insists it’s getting even more focused on data privacy. For the last five years, DJI has had a team of 30 devoted entirely to the privacy and data security features of its products. Collectively, this team has contributed more than 300,000 hours to bolster DJI’s apps, servers, chipsets, and firmware, the company says.

As late US President Ronald Reagan might (again) say, “there you go again.” Militants of widening bans on Chinese tech sold in the US have again locked DJI drones into their sites as security threats  – with the crosshairs this time belonging to the senior Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Much attention has been turned to the spectacular destructive forces of continuing volcanic activity on the Spanish island of La Palma. Now two groups are using drones to care for overlooked victims of the volcano: Dogs left stranded and starving by advancing lava flows.

Given the unthrottled interest and anticipation uncorked by repeated leaks ahead of DJI’s expected Mavic 3 Pro launch next month, it seems likely nothing could possibly threaten the world’s newest drone – apart, perhaps, from the world’s worsening supply chain problems.

The gigantic wholesale fresh food market serving the Paris region has gotten a taste of its tech future, thanks to a series of drone flights testing the viability of last-mile produce deliveries around the massive facility.

In less than a year, Europe-based drone group Parrot has announced the sale of two of its subsidiary companies to AgEagle Aerial Systems. The first was sensor specialist MicaSense. And now, fixed-wing drone maker senseFly is going to exit from Parrot’s portfolio.

DJI’s US online store has gotten rid of all Mavic 2 series inventory days before the launch of the long-awaited Mavic 3 prosumer drone.

The folks at Saildrone, who recently made history by sending an ocean drone into the eye of a hurricane, are celebrating another milestone today. Saildrone has just received an investment of $100 million to grow its capabilities in climate data, ocean mapping, and maritime intelligence solutions.

When a company registers an unannounced product with the FCC, it becomes clear that it is ready for release. DJI’s latest FCC filings, however, contain a rather interesting detail – the difference between the Mavic 3 and the Mavic 3 Cine drones.

DJI’s long-awaited Mavic 3 prosumer drone and Action 2 waterproof camera have turned up on the FCC database – which is generally the final step before a product is released commercially.

Limited battery capacity has been the primary brake on operating longer drone flights, but tech developed by a Washington state company may hold the key to powering UAV longer – perhaps indefinitely – through its remote charging application.

Sit. Beg. Roll over. Shoot the hostile dead. Meet the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle (SPUR) application, designed to be the robot dog quadruped’s best friend – so long as it wants a hand blasting a designated target away.

A trio of aviation partners is showcasing what they’re calling a breakthrough UAV application enabling full, thorough, automated drone dent inspection of an airplane in a single hour. 

DJI is on the cusp of launching the highly anticipated Mavic 3 prosumer drone with astounding flight time and an upgraded camera system. If you’re in the market for a drone for yourself or someone you know for the holidays, should the upcoming announcement affect your shopping decision?

The swells involved may not have been the kind of 20- to 30-foot bashers that pummel fear into boaters confronting them at open sea. But the moderately whipped waves captured in a drone video shot at New Jersey’s Island Beach State Park recently do provide an idea of how helpless ships become when trapped in the crosshairs of the ocean’s surging power.

Between the Dixie, Caldor, McCash, and Windy fires, Northern California has been witnessing a busy wildfire season. And this time, the firefighters on the ground are being shadowed by a crew from NASA. Their aim? To watch and learn how drones help to battle the blazes from above.

The New York State Thruway Authority, which manages New York’s 570-mile toll highway system, says it will begin testing drone technology for infrastructure inspections in partnerships with UAV nonprofit organization Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR).

Two French companies are getting closer to perfecting an asset that will allow naval forces to launch small UAVs from the surface of – or beneath – the bodies of water they’re patrolling.

The French maritime defense company, Naval Group, has teamed up with the Toulouse-based drone startup Diodon to adapt a specialized, compact UAV for water deployment by navy, coast guard, and other forces policing the seas. The partners have already worked together in use scenarios with a current version of the craft, and plan on testing the next-generation upgrade of the vehicle next year. 

There have, of course, been several projects initiated elsewhere to develop drones capable of making the transition from water to air (and in some cases, back into the drink again and again).  The Naval Group-Diodon tandem, however, is close to deploying a specialized UAV that can be launched from submarines or boats, and almost immediately begin performing airborne missions with all the tech and flight capacities of exclusively aerial high-performance quadcopters.

A major difference between Diodon’s new HP30 iteration and other liquid-to-air craft under development is its expandable components. The body and foldable wings are surrounded by a tough but collapsible skin that is inflated before deployment. That approach makes the craft lighter and more compact in storage, and far more buoyant when rising to or floating on surfaces of water. The encasing is also highly puncture-resistance and entirely air-tight.

Diodon’s drones are intended for detection, patrol, reconnaissance, surveillance, and engagement with criminal or hostile targets under watch by official forces in France and the 18 other nations Naval Drone works with. The HP30 has a range of 8 km, maximum flight time of 30 minutes at top speeds of 55 km/h, and resists winds of up to 25 knots per hour. Setup to launch time is a minute or less.

Diodon officials say ongoing tests of the earlier model HP20 have been successful at depths of several meters under water, with trials of the HP30 intending to launch the craft farther down from submarines.