Search News

DRL unveils "Women Taking Flight" to recruit women pilots and spotlight women pursuing underrepresented career paths

Native American tribes in Oklahoma have poured more than $15.6 billion into the state, while generating billions more from companies that support the tribes' business operations, according to the most recent Oklahoma Native Impact report (fiscal year 2019). The report illustrates how Oklahoma's 38 federally recognized tribes have made an unprecedented impact on the Sooner State's economy through a diverse portfolio of businesses including gaming and hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, retail and professional services, UAS/AAM, among others.

The Drone Racing League (DRL), the global, premier, professional drone racing property, and the United States Air Force (USAF) announced today their expanded partnership for the seventh year in a row, making the U.S. Air Force the longest reigning DRL partner.

Celestial Drones Performs Drone Show to Raise Funds and Awareness for Muscular Dystrophy

From scientific research, firefighting and rainmaking to energy-saving airborne deliveries, more sustainable agriculture and renewable energy, unmanned systems are enabling the shift to a green economy.

Hidden Level teams with local police to guard Texas stadiums from illegal drones at sporting events

Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the availability timing of the company's first-ever professional drone, "Airpeak S1." The introductory model in the new Airpeak line, the S1 is the world's smallest drone that can be equipped with a full-size mirrorless interchangeable-lens Alpha camera, opening up a new world of creative possibilities for cinematographers and other visual storytelling professionalsi. Pre-sale opens today, December 1, 2021, with an expected customer ship date of December 24, 2021.

"Drone racing is ahead of the curve," says Drone Champions League CEO Dr. Michael Kostka. "And now DCL intends to advance the sport even further with a hybrid format that enables fans to immerse themselves in both physical and virtual events at spectacular new locations."

In this week's roundup from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, which highlights some of the latest news and headlines in unmanned vehicles and robotics, ship-to-submarine package delivery, Walmart puts on a drone light show, and North Dakota expands permissions for drone flights.

The Golden Gate Bridge has always been a much-loved photography subject. And now, with drones becoming smaller, increasingly capable, and ever more affordable, even more people are using their unmanned aircraft to photograph the famous landmark, some illegally.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics and its members are pushing back against the proposed remote identification rules announced by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Imagine if you could turn on a drone, and by itself, it could rise off the floor, map an area, and fly itself on any assigned mission? That's the goal of the teams that competed for $1 million this past December in the inaugural Artificial Intelligence Robotic Racing Circuit, called AlphaPilot for short.

Is it a bird, is it a plane, no, it's drones!

There are many terrific benefits of drones across multiple sectors.  Every week, we read about the new benefits of using UAVs for inspections.

On a humid afternoon in August, pilots are racing drones they built themselves at McAdams Park in central Wichita. The racers are part of ICT FPV (short for first-person view), a local chapter of MultiGP, the largest drone-racing league in the world.

General Atomics, a tenant of the Grand Sky UAS Research and Development Park, has received a certificate of authorization to conduct beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights within 60 miles of the Grand Forks Air Force Base without a visual observer or a chase plane. The announcement was made on Tuesday, Aug. 27, by Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., during a panel discussion at the Unmanned Aerial Systems Summit and Expo held at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.

In our 2019 drone industry survey, we sought out to understand how the U.S. drone industry is doing — are pilots making money? What industries are they in? How often are they flying?

Are you planning to take your drone out for a spin this weekend? First, you'd better check the map, and a new list of requirements from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Adam Goldberg, a full-time architecture and real estate photographer, got involved in the drone industry as a way to share a different perspective of a property to his clients. With his commercial drone license, Adam was able to transform his business into a full-service company providing both aerial and on-the-ground photography and video.

As a hobbyist (and occasional professional) drone pilot, I have often wondered what Hollywood filmmakers are flying with. This information is often kept under wraps, as many pilots are not allowed to discuss what films they work on or what equipment they use. We found one drone operator at AUVSI 2019 that was more than willing to share. Some of the cameras they use are surprising, and the drones that lift those cameras are some of the biggest in the business.

An article in the WSJ today, explains why drone races are hard to follow for spectators.

Cloud County Community College's small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems program will be offering a free workshop about drone ownership Saturday, March 2, from 9:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. in Building D2 on the Geary County Campus of Cloud County Community College.

This Saturday, the University of South Florida (USF) is holding an event during which teams will race drones using their brains.

You'd like to fly your drone in NYC? Well, it is probably best to watch this video first. Griffin Hammond does a great job explaining why it's mostly illegal to fly your drone in NYC. He lists four main reasons as to why he, even as an FAA-certified pilot, can't fly drones in New York City. 

During Sunday's Super Bowl in Atlanta, Intel Corp. partnered with the NFL to create the first-ever live drone lightshow during the game's halftime show.

If you or someone you know gets a drone for Christmas, city officials want to help you find somewhere to fly it.

We love all of the amazing videos at AirVuz – but to highlight a new area of AirVuz' content, we're featuring this amazing FPV piece from DroneDoll, part of the AirVuz drone racing team.

Drones are often celebrated for their ability to capture a new vantage point on the world, revealing the beauty of our planet from high above. But they are only the latest development in a long history of aerial photography. For hundreds of years, airborne cameras have made awe-inspiring images of our planet, revealed the devastating scale of natural disasters, and tipped the scales in combat. And in some surprising ways, the history of aerial photography dovetails with the last century of human history more broadly.

Drones may potentially be as disruptive to society as the advent of the internet.

That's one of the claims made in a new short documentary about drones called Elevation (link to film on second page). The film is produced by Dezeen, a popular design and architecture website and magazine. Coming in at just under 18 minutes, the doco interviews futurists, architects and other experts about positive and negative implications that UAVs are having on society today.

IT researchers have developed a virtual reality-based system that lets drones navigate rooms while avoiding virtual obstacles. 
The "Flight Goggles" system, developed by MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems along with its Computer Science and Artifical Intelligence Laboratory, reportedly allows the unmanned aerial vehicle to "see" a complete virtual environment and navigate around intangible objects.

The Drone Racing League (DRL), has formally announced the launch of the 2018 DRL Allianz World Championship Season. The big reveal includes a smattering of new global partners, fresh pilots competing and several new race locations around the world.

The Olympics opening ceremony is always a big show, and this year was no exception, with Intel joining in on the fun with a record-setting performance of 1,218 Shooting Star drones flying in sync to create huge light-up images of Olympic sports and the iconic Olympic rings in the skies over Pyeongchang.

Intel Corp. doesn't know yet exactly how its unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) technologies will fit into the U.S. Drone Integration Pilot Program, but the company views the new program as an important opportunity and a potentially positive step for the UAS industry. Anil Nanduri, vice president of Intel's New Technology Group and UAS general manager, spoke to UAS Magazine about the company's major areas of drone technology and how the new federal pilot program could serve to advance the UAS industry in ways that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test sites could not.

The International Drone Racing Association (IDRA) has announced that drone events are now eligible to apply for event liability insurance. After using IDRA's semi-professional series, 2017 Challengers Cup, as an opportunity to test the liability insurance with partnered event organizers, the company is motivated and excited to expand the coverage to other drone related events around the globe. IDRA is confident that the service will have a positive impact in helping drone events find applicable and affordable coverage to protect their businesses, pilots, and spectators.

DR1 Racing, the premiere international drone racing organization, today announced the company's flagship drone racing series, the DHL Champions Series Fueled by Mountain Dew, will debut on beIN SPORTS October 19th, with the series Finals airing on CBS Sports on November 4th at 1:30pm EDT. This will be the first ever drone racing program to appear on either CBS or beIN.

An unmanned aircraft system or "drone" performed a mission for only the second time during the Mississippi State University vs. LSU football game Sept. 16.

Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City will be hosting the UAS Business & Contracting Symposium on August 8. The event has several sponsors, including KOKH FOX 25 and the UAS Cluster Initiative of Oklahoma and Kansas. The event brings government and private industry stakeholders who recognize the potential of the UAS industry and are interested in UAS considerations, challenges and answers.

Last Thursday, San Francisco's Aerial Sports League — one of the first groups in the country to organize drone competitions — turned the Palace of Fine Arts Theater into a looping, quarter-mile indoor drone drag race course, filled with the loud whiney buzz of drones speeding more than 100 mph. The event drew 16 pilots from throughout California, from ages 11 to 45.

Mike Gearin's drone company, PhotoFlight Aerial Media, based in Manchester, Conn., is tapping into the commercial potential of drones for real estate, surveying, marketing and cinematography. The Boston Globe spoke with Gearin about whether the sky's the limit for drones.

Mike Gearin has a tendency to drone on and on. But it's OK — because he's droning about drones.
Gearin is a sky diver, airline pilot, and former flight school instructor who has taken to the skies in a new way: flying commercial drones capable of carrying cinema cameras that shoot amazing shots at low altitudes.

At some point in the not-too-distant future, fleets of commercial drones are expected to swarm across American skies. Companies in a wide range of industries will employ unmanned vehicles for tactical advantage—inspecting infrastructure, surveying crops, maybe even estimating how much your new roof will cost.  And when these drones fly, a torrent of data will follow them like an invisible contrail.

If you can't wait for the day drones plop packages on your porch or a flying car whisks you to work, you should know that the hold-up isn't technological, but technocratic. Before these future flyers can take off, they must learn to play by the rules of the sky.That means communicating with air traffic control and other aircraft, spotting and avoiding threats, and generally knowing what to do when things go sideways. Making all of this happen demands whole new levels of capability—not just from the aircraft, but from the sprawling system that oversees them. The good news is, change is coming.

"Five years from now, we will look back to a world before and after drones," predicted Steve Sarnecki, vice president of federal and public sector at OSIsoft.
The company's software collects and analyzes sensor data and makes it more accessible. In recent months, Sarnecki said his customers have been deploying unmanned aerial systems in new ways to gather data. The electrical power, oil and gas industries, for instance, are using them to gather images and sensor data on their infrastructure.
And Sarnecki is not alone.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International recently released a report that finds nearly 90 percent of the waivers granted by the Federal Aviation Administration under Part 107 went to small businesses. According to the report, most of the waivers allow businesses to operate unmanned aircraft systems at night, which is not permitted under the current rule. The report also finds that businesses in 44 states received waivers in the first six months since the rule took effect.

Tulsa Community College announced that it will offer a new pilot training program tailored for commercial users of unmanned aircraft systems, or drones. TCC's UAS pilot training class will take place April 25-27 at the college's Riverside Community Campus and Aviation Center at Jones Riverside Airport.

Assessing the health of an entire industry is not an easy task, but talking with industry leaders and looking for examples of growth and investment can help. Our "State of the UAS/UAV Industry" inquiries have lead to discussions with General Atomics, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Aeryon Labs and SensoFusion. SensoFusion might be a little well less known that the others, but we felt the need to include the views of an anti-drone system supplier to counterbalance the industry's perception of itself.

The Federal Aviation Administration has given drone pilots with the Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office permission to fly drones at night anywhere in the country. Sheriff Bob Rost announced Friday that the FAA issued the authorization to the Northeast Region Unmanned Aircraft Systems Unit about a day after a deputy made a public plea to the federal agency during a helicopter expo earlier this week in Dallas.

Small businesses are pioneering the use of commercial drones. Here's where they are being used right now.

A company called Aerones has developed a drone to use for droneboarding, a new sport that's just what it sounds like — a snowboarder being pulled through the snow by a powerful drone.

Sunday's Super Bowl halftime light show featuring Lady Gaga -- prerecorded to comply with prohibitions on flying drones over people -- was choreographed by Intel Corp. It provided a dramatic backdrop for the performance and also illustrated the ways large companies are embracing unmanned aircraft in sometimes unexpected ways.