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The second edition of CAP 722A released in December 2022 is intended to assist Applicants who are involved in the production of an Operational Risk Assessment (ORA) which will be used as supporting evidence for an application to the CAA for the operation of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the Specific Category.

NASA researchers recently completed a full-scale crash test of an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) concept vehicle at the Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) facility at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Next Generation Aviation, both the passenger-less uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and passenger-carrying Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), had a banner year in 2022 with announcements, approvals, certifications, new deployments, amazing statistics, and engagement from government stakeholders. Industry highlights included the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Beyond Visual Line of Sight Aviation Rule-making Committee (ARC) Report that focused on the necessity and opportunity for advanced operations at scale, the first airworthiness certifications in the United States, the expansion of drone delivery around the world, the adoption of Performance Based Regulations (PBR) in new countries, and, rumor has it, the recognition of new risk assessment methods for UAS by international regulators in SARPS out for review. So, it's that time of year once again to ask, "What's in store for next year?"

Rotor Technologies, Inc.'s prototype of a firefighting helicopter drone successfully executed its first flight on December 2, 2022 at the FAA's New York UAS test site after receiving experimental certification on November 30, 2022.

Public safety and critical infrastructure UAS consulting group Skyfire Consulting announced that it has successfully assisted Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in acquiring a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver under a Part 107 for the entire state of California.

With the assistance of AeroX, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office (FSCO) has launched North Carolina's first Drones as First Responders (DFR) program. The program has a drone operator listen in on live 911 calls to deploy a drone to the scene if necessary. The drone is then able to stream live video to responding deputies and the command center, granting increased situational awareness and informing the method of response. DFR have been proven to provide faster response times and improved safety for both residents and officers.

Airborne Response a leading provider of mission-critical aerial intelligence using small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS), has completed more than 500 drone flights in Florida on behalf of enterprise customers supporting response, relief, and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Category 4 Hurricane Ian.

Flylogix CEO Charles Tavner was invited to attend the recent Shell Aircraft Safety Seminar and Workshops in the Hague, along with safety subject matter experts, academics and executives from the energy and aviation industries.

The rapidly growing use of drones in industries and governments worldwide means that users are demanding more in terms of performance and productivity.

The U of A's Master of Science in Operations Management Program and Bentonville Schools collaborated to incorporate workforce education opportunities in advanced air mobility.

 Airspace Link, a leading drone safety infrastructure company, is announcing its participation in the FAA's UTM Field Test, a research project designed to evaluate the technology and standards being developed to help safely coordinate and prioritize drone flights as drone activity in low-altitude airspace ramps up. ("UTM" is short for UAS (drone) Traffic Management).

Skyfire Consulting (Skyfire) (skyfireconsulting.com), the most trusted and experienced public safety UAS consulting group, today announced it has officially partnered with DroneSense— maker of leading drone management and collaboration platform. This strategic partnership will allow both Skyfire and DroneSense to provide public safety agencies a complete Drone First Responder (DFR) package and help them smoothly navigate through the phases of starting a program.

In a company first, DroneShield has announced the sale and deployment of the DroneSentry counterdrone system at a U.S. international airport.

Several companies developing next generation technologies for drones exhibited their solutions at the fourth annual UAS Public Safety Summit last week. The summit was focused on applications related to public safety that enhance capabilities for law enforcement and first responders.

Virginia Tech has won its sixth major federal contract to lead research on an increasingly urgent question: How to safely manage drone traffic.

NASA and the FAA are working to revolutionize air traffic control for the drone era.

Law enforcement members from around the country were introduced to the practicality of unmanned aircraft systems by the Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus Applied Aviation Research Center team.

NASA has announced the formation of a partnership with DRONERESPONDERS for the research and development of automated safety processes and procedures that will allow for highly automated aviation response in the national airspace.

Skyfire Consulting (Skyfire) (skyfireconsulting.com), the most trusted and experienced public safety UAS consulting group, today announced it has helped secure Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waivers, specifically for Drone First Responder (DFR) — a revolutionary means by which the deployment of drones enhances response to emergency situations and adds an element of safety for public safety agencies and the community—for three additional police departments around the country.

Seeking to maintain a comprehensive record of drone incursions on an international basis, Israel-based counter-drone technology provider D-Fend Solutions has launched the Drone Attack & Incident Tracker on its website. The database, which uses publicly available resources to track drone incursion incidents, includes the incident description, date, sector affected and the source of the information.

Essentium, Inc., a leading innovator of industrial additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, today announced Axle Box Innovations, a public safety technology developer, is using Essentium AM technology to support the development of US-made 3D printed drones for fire management and protection.

Essentium, Inc., a leading innovator of industrial additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, today announced Axle Box Innovations, a public safety technology developer, is using Essentium AM technology to support the development of US-made 3D printed drones for fire management and protection.

Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT), a hardware-enabled software provider to the drone industry, announced today that it has completed research, development and production for a four-drone, multi-vehicle system for defense, government, and public safety markets.

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.

Discussions around UAV technology tend to focus on the drones themselves and the accessories and software that enable them to make a difference in industries such as construction, public safety, and package delivery. But there's another critical element of the drone ecosystem that deserves attention: drone ports and docking systems.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a new prize competition series to advance the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by first responders for indoor search and rescue operations. 

High-quality digital tools for 3D geolocation are helping to unlock the full potential of next-generation transit systems, enabling increased efficiency in all phases of action while improving safety and the end-user experience.

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.

Police in North Texas using drone-based technology to save officers', civilians' lives with Drone Clear

AUVSI's Xponential 2022, taking place next week in Orlando, FL at the beautiful Orlando Convention Center.  The show will be the first big international drone show since pandemic restrictions have (mostly) lifted, and the schedule and the show floor are both packed.

This drone interceptor is designed to catch light UAVs. High power-to-weight ratio is a competitive advantage of this concept. It allows the drone to fly fast.

Pierce Aerospace announced a partnership with Vigilant Aerospace Systems today to integrate Pierce Aerospace's Flight Portal Remote ID technologies into Vigilant's FlightHorizon airspace management and flight safety products.

Pierce Aerospace, of Indianapolis, announced a partnership with Vigilant Aerospace Systems today to integrate Pierce Aerospace's Flight Portal Remote ID technologies into Vigilant's FlightHorizon airspace management and flight safety products.

The following is a guest post by Christopher Todd, President of the AUVSI Florida Peninsula Chapter and the Executive Director of AIRT, Inc., the nation's leading 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting drones for emergency use and official home of DRONERESPONDERS.  DRONELIFE neither accepts nor makes payment for guest posts.

Texas-based SkyeBrowse, a company that employs video technology in the public safety arena, will receive a portion of a major grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop drone-based technology that will help first responders react to an active-shooter situation and other threats to schools and other buildings.

Vigilant Aerospace Detect and Avoid Drone Safety System Wins NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award

The Unmanned Aerial Systems industry has been clear that the #1 factor holding back growth is a lack of clarity. Through FAA programs like Data Exchange and UAS Service Suppliers (USSes), the federal government is meeting its commitments to support the industry with regulations addressing operations in controlled airspace. Now, Virginia is helping to provide clarity at the state and local levels.

ICOR and BRINC Partner on Air/Ground Robot Integration for First Responders

NASA's Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Ecosystem Working Groups (AEWG) hosted a virtual workshop this week featuring discussions on AAM integration. Starting in June, the AEWG will develop more formal roadmaps based on the priorities and sequencing discussions taking place during this week's workshop. Robert Pearce, NASA's Associate Administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, shared his perspective on AAM integration strategies. Two other representatives from NASA, Davis Hackenberg and Ken Goodrich, also discussed some of the next steps for establishing an AAM ecosystem. 

Hidden Level will be displaying the success of their revolutionary Airspace Monitoring Service (AMS) at stand # 32047 at ISC West, which has proven effective at serving law enforcement in Arlington, Texas to identify unauthorized drones during football games played at AT&T Stadium and other locations and applications around the country

Imagine you're a family of 4 heading to a ski resort in the region. You take an electric Uber to your local small airport. You're in the air in 15 minutes. You land near the resort and another electric Uber takes you to the hill. You fly quietly over the often dangerous mountain roads, enjoying the scenery from the air. All for the cost of getting there by other means, but in a fraction of the time.

Drones are increasingly being incorporated into workflows to help gather high-quality data about assets. Over time, developers have needed to push drone technology to meet end users' demands for more intuitive and responsive flight, data collection, processing, and analysis. In the "Drones and AI: Improving Workflows" webinar, Commercial UAV News connected with Yariv Geller from vHive, Toomas Välja from Hepta Airborne, Kabe Termes from Skydio, and Eric Wittner from Intel Geospatial, to discuss how AI and ML improve workflows from data collection, processing, and analysis to the final deliverable.

Our recent Have We (Finally) Achieved Autonomous Operations for Drones? webinar explored numerous questions and issues related to distinct technical, regulatory and operational elements of flying drones in an autonomous manner. Dave Buhrman from Skydio, Alex Fraess-Ehrfeld from AIR6 Systems, Christopher Bourbeau from Cambridge Consultants and Omer Sharar from infiniDome participated in a discussion that explored standard definitions of autonomy, the security ramifications around using drones in this manner, how such operations can impact scale, and much more.
In fact, there was so much to get to during the webinar that we weren't able to address many of the excellent questions that came in from the live audience. We took the best of those questions and threw them out to the participants to facilitate the continuation of this discussion with each of them.

After more than a half dozen years of study and pilot program testing, the police department in Dallas, Texas earlier this year officially launched its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program.

DRONERESPONDERS, the world's leading non-profit program dedicated exclusively to the support of public safety drone programs, will return to AUVSI's XPONENTIAL 2022 to provide educational content and programming for America's first responders using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). 

A Focus on Public Safety UAS Education and Networking: DRONERESPONDERS at XPONENTIAL 2022
AIRT will produce two new concepts –Conclave and Forum – for first responders using Drones For Good.

The board of the National Aerospace Research & Technology Park in Egg Harbor Township on Monday approved an agreement with Deloitte Consulting to develop an achievable strategy to position New Jersey as a national leader in advanced air mobility — and work to channel AAM research and development and employment opportunities to Atlantic County.

Skyfire Announces SF2 Drone for Public Safety and Critical Sector Missions

Two N.C. Department of Transportation programs combined to be the first in the nation to launch an innovative technology pilot with their safety service patrol that should improve safety on North Carolina roadways.

The entire country of Lebanon was changed forever when a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut exploded on August 4th, 2020. The $15 billion in property destruction that it caused was the least of that damage, as the hundreds dead, over 7,000 injured and the estimated 300,000 people that were rendered homeless signify the true catastrophic nature of the event.