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How can we enable a more resilient, adaptable, and scalable drone manufacturing sector?

What if we thought of drones as community entities and assets, rather than just robots that fly through the sky and deliver goods and services?

To achieve the necessary public acceptance for vertiports to become a mainstay within the aviation ecosystem, safety and environmental impact concerns must be addressed.

Unless vertiports have the necessary electrical and digital infrastructure, they are unlikely to fulfil the promise of the new urban air mobility (UAM) revolution.

Farming operations are turning to uncrewed systems because of their ability to produce "remarkable improvements in production, efficiency, and revenue within the agricultural cycle.

In recent years, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with drone technology has ushered in a new era of innovation across diverse industries. This powerful combination is reshaping traditional practices and opening up new possibilities for sectors from energy and utilities to surveillance and weather forecasting and beyond.

The Department of Defense Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) developed the Blue sUAS program in 2020, with a list of 5 "trusted" platforms.  The program has since been adopted by the US government procurement office and other federal agencies, as well as some states, as the standard for cybersecurity.

Delivery drones are making an impact, safely transporting critical medical supplies to remote areas, hot lunches and goods to people's homes, blood samples to hospitals, and spare parts and other materials to workers on jobsites. But delivery areas are limited and the focus is now on expanding operations to unlock the true value delivery drones can provide. 

As the drone industry grows and new manufacturers enter the market, is the use of open source drone platforms growing?  The Dronecode Foundation, the organizing force behind the PX4 open source drone ecosystem, has published their Year in Review report for 2022: and the metrics tell an interesting story.

Researchers at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) have demonstrated the value of drone delivery platforms to assist in search and rescue operations, by providing remote guided medical triage for simulated injured hikers. Leveraging remote medical triage will help buy rescuers invaluable time to reach victims and extract them to a trauma centre.

Heven Drones, a leader in the development and commercialization of actionable drone platforms with heavy-lift capabilities, will be presenting its Autonomous Container System: a unique system that allows a complete autonomous logistics mission, at the Israeli UVID conference in Tel Aviv.

https://www.suasnews.com/2022/10/droneup-partners-with-the-utah-department-of-transportation-division-of-aeronautics-for-air-mobility-urban-planning/

SkyeBrowse, the fastest and easiest drone reality capture platform, announced it will now offer a free version of its app with limited features.

uAvionix recently completed a complex demonstration of its SkyLine Command and Control (C2) management service in which multiple Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) were being controlled from the cloud-based C2 platform, while each of the aircraft was connected to SkyLine by multiple simultaneous links to multiple terrestrial radios.  The demonstration was conducted in coordination with the Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) UAS Test Center, an FAA Beyond lead participant.

COPTRZ Ltd, have launched their new drone learning experience platform (LXP) platform COPTRZ ACADEMY. COPTRZ claim that this is the leading platform of its type anywhere in the World.

Creating digital twins with aerial inspections, PIX4Dscan and PIX4Dinspect are streamlining operations for major telecom operators.

The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Science and Technology Directorate recently awarded Berry Aviation, Inc. a $1.45M contract to design and develop a new Group 1 Unmanned Autonomous System (UAS) for Special Operations Forces (SOF).

Following its successful coordination of the recent First Responder Unmanned Aircraft System Triple Challenge, Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus has again been selected to lead an unmanned aircraft systems competition that will award prize money to winners.

Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDE, "Blade") a technology-powered global air mobility platform, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") through its wholly-owned European subsidiaries to acquire the asset-light commercial passenger transport activities of three urban air mobility operators in Europe: Monacair SAM, Héli Sécurité and another leading helicopter operator in the South of France.

We were promised jetpacks that never arrived. But you know what's finally here? Big, honking drones you can ride on.

Romeo Durscher, VP of Public Safety at open source drone platform Auterion is a drone industry hero, paving the way for drone use in emergency response and public safety.  In a DRONELIFE Exclusive interview from the floor of AUVSI's Xponential 2022, Durscher says that an open source drone platform like Auterion's is all about giving manufacturers the opportunity to innovate, giving customers the widest range of choice, and ultimately improving the entire workflow of commercial drone use.

The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at VIPC, and a coalition of public and private sector leaders from DroneUp, ATA, Ecodyne, and the City of Winchester conducted a demonstration "Fly-In" during the 95th annual Apple Blossom Festival. 

The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at VIPC, and a coalition of public and private sector leaders from DroneUp, ATA, Ecodyne, and the City of Winchester conducted a demonstration "Fly-In" during the 95th annual Apple Blossom Festival.

Today, leading drone camera stabilizer manufacturer Gremsy has announced the formation of a partnership with autonomous mobility platform Auterion. The partners have teamed up for the development of a deeply integrated gimbal solution for Auterion powered and MAVLink compatible drone platforms. Gremsy PE, a new introductory lineup, provides users with the ability to utilize open drone ecosystems with a range of camera payload options.

The "Global Aerostructures Market by Material(Composites, Alloys & Superalloys and Metals), Component, End User (OEM, Aftermarket), Platform (Fixed Wing, Rotary Wing, UAVs, Advanced Air Mobility) & Region (North America, Europe, APAC, RoW) - Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Drone ecosystem funding: leading Digital Twin platform vHive Raises $25 Million in Series B Led by PSG

Applied Aeronautics, a leading U.S manufacturer of affordable long-range drones, today announced its flagship Albatross UAV is now available in an NDAA-compliant variant. Applied Aeronautics has released this latest upgrade for their popular Albatross platform in response to a growing demand for robust, low-cost solutions from the defence community. 

Flight data management leader AirData UAV announced today a new technology partnership with Skydio, the leader in drone manufacturing and autonomous flight. This new partnership will enable the integration of Skydio Cloud into AirData's robust fleet management platform, offering customers a complete fleet management solution.

Sharper Shape, a pioneer in powerline inspection solutions for the utility industry, has announced the new iteration of its cutting-edge utility digital twin technology that incorporates a new, fourth dimension of time to what has traditionally been a 3D industry model, creating a Living Digital Twin (LDT), that specifically answers utility needs in terms of safety, efficiency accuracy and cost-saving.

Joint initiative will focus on education for underrepresented groups in drone industry

Airspace Link, Inc., a leading Detroit-based provider of drone mapping and solution software, announced it will be partnering with the City of Arlington, Texas, to pilot its new FlySafe Program, powered by the AirHub™ platform.

CAL Analytics is testing their Contingency Management Platform (CMP) with the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) test site.

Grand Farm, led by Emerging Prairie, applauds the work of the North Dakota Legislature and Governor Burgum to invest federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds into the state in ways that will support and bolster entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology through the passage and signing of State Senate Bill 2345.

Lotte, a conglomerate based in South Korea, joined a business alliance involving U.S. companies to promote demonstration flights for urban air mobility in a project led by the western port city of Incheon to open an air taxi service. Urban air mobility (UAM) is an ecosystem covering personal air vehicles and infrastructure such as a new navigation system, take-off and landing fields and charging technologies.

Two companies, TruWeather Solutions and Drone Industry Systems Corporation (DISC), have teamed up to provide a holistic infrastructure solution for the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) industry.

A partnership, which marries Ascent AeroSystems' coaxial unmanned aerial system technology with Exyn Technologies' LiDAR-enabled mapping software, is expected to provide a new solution for customers seeking to operate drone systems in confined spaces and in GPS-denied environments.

A few months ago, we published an article about SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) and the strong influence they were having in the growing advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. Now that influence is materializing in the form of millions poured into research & development (R&D) of these non-traditional aerial platforms. On August 21st Archer aviation announced that it is confirming the proposed business combination with Atlas Crest Investment Corp. (NYSE: ACIC) ("Atlas Crest"), a SPAC. This business combination was first announced in February as a potential Q2 2021 deal, and even though it took one more quarter to materialize, in a few short weeks, Archer will be a public company.

As the US and its allies focus on the growing threat from peer competitors, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could provide 'deterrence by detection', according to a recent report from the US Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is stepping up global co-operation on the use of humanitarian drones, which are a game-changer for fast, accurate, disaster impact assessment and response. With growing threats from famine and climate change, it is hoped a new online platform will help respond to the challenges ahead, as currently being demonstrated in the response to tropical storm Eloise in Mozambique.

Mississippi State University's Raspet Flight Lab II is making use of a quiet room for their research, and it is not the library. The lab specializes in research on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and has been focused on research related to drones, both commercial and military, and how to reduce propeller noise while maintaining efficiency and performance.

Swoop Aero was founded to transform how the world moves essential supplies by making access to the skies seamless. We were the first company to deliver a vaccine using a drone under a commercial contract. Since then, we've expanded globally, transforming the health supply chain with drone logistics operations in four countries.  

HEISHA, the leading provider of autonomous drone charging stations in the world, as launched DNEST—its newest and smallest charging station—together with a global call for exclusive partners.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made the ban official: no agency may use DOJ funds for any unmanned aircraft manufactured by a "Covered Foreign Entity: … any entity that is determined or designated, within the Department of Justice, to be subject to or vulnerable to extrajudicial direction from a foreign government," which includes drones by the world's leading manufacturer, DJI.

An unmanned aircraft system developed by Textron's Bell subsidiary for cargo delivery has flown beyond visual line of sight in an urban area as part of a NASA project to showcase commercial UAS missions with industry partners.

Amazon is launching a new Ring security camera that's fixed on top of a flying drone.

A team from Oklahoma State University designed and built a turbo-electric drone engine as part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Army.

Kratos Defense, a manufacturer of military tactical and training drones, has expanded its footprint in Oklahoma City, increasing the size of its operation there by 50 percent.

Volansi (formerly Volans-i), which provides vertical takeoff and landing drone delivery services for commercial and defense customers, recently announced a $50 million round. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its go-to-market efforts as it expands into new territories globally.

Somewhere around the world firefighters are gearing up to tackle a wildfire. To manage the rapid, unpredictable and destructive spread, firefighters are opting for sophisticated resources and innovative technology -- Drones