Bruce Crumley

Australia’s contender in the world’s emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) activities, AMSL Aero, has announced a significant development in its domestic market with a deal for 10 of its Vertiia hybrid hydrogen and electric vertical takeoff and landing planes (eVTOL).

It should go without saying, the area around Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII will be a strictly enforced no-fly zone, but recent drone intrusions of National Football League (NFL) games has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to announce not only a broad flight ban in host city Las Vegas – but also a multi-day order starting today.

China’s top air taxi developer, EHang, not only beat its international rivals to become the world’s first startup to secure certification of its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL), but it went a step further this month in becoming one of the very few manufacturers in the sector to reveal the list price of its craft – and an exceptionally low one, at that.

It’s poor form to speak badly of the dead, but we’re not Mary Poppins, so hard cheese: Pixy, arguably the dumbest product idea ever – and definitely the most egregious bastardization of drone tech – may well be quite logically no more, bereft of life, resting in peace, pushing up the daisies, off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible; but it’s now being yanked from its well deserved early grave by a recall for posing a potential threat to the people who made the shameful error of buying one in the first place.

Swiss specialized local weather forecasting company Meteomatics is set to get a boost from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which is reportedly moving to provide funding to scale the startup’s drone-based meteorological activities, which in turn may help fill a gap in the US group’s own climatic monitoring profile.

It may not be ready to rival Amazon as a teaming marketplace where virtually any legal product can be bought and transported rapidly, but Germany’s LieferMichel drone delivery project spiriting goods to remote communities is starting to attract an impressive array of participating retailers.

Amazon’s Prime Air service hasn’t had a surfeit of good news to report about its aerial activities, but the drone delivery unit did get a notable shout-out in this week’s company round-up of the online marketplace’s 2023 work to get orders to clients faster.

Photographer and video maestro Tucker Wooding has carved out a place for himself in surfing history by using drones to get close to waves and capture images of riders deep inside them, yet somehow making it out. Now he offers footage of a UAV that didn’t.

The prototype of a new drone capable of long-distance surveillance operations over oceans has been revealed by the MITRE corporation, which says the 3D printed craft can recharge itself during extended flights using solar panels on its wings.

A barrage of aerial and ground infrastructure trials have been held this month by the UK’s Open Skies Cornwall consortium, which is seeking to organize airspace into which regular UAV activities – including ship-to-shore operations – can be integrated above and around Falmouth Harbour, and enable future ship-to-shore and other operations. 

The continued and extremely effective innovation in deploying what at their origin are consumer and enterprise drone technologies – notably first-person view craft (FPV) – have been essential to Ukraine’s defense against the larger and better equipped invading Russian Army. Now it appears technicians in Kyiv have again attained an aerial advantage by flying swarms of UAVs overseen by a craft acting as a kind of “queen” bee in those operations.

Specialized cargo drone developer MightyFly has unveiled the third generation of its Centro hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing craft (eVTOL), equipped with additional features and performance enhancements the startup will demonstrate during events later this year.

The world’s leading drone maker DJI has clearly had enough of the recurring accusations about the data security of its craft, and the attendant blacklists drawn up by US political leaders offering no substantiation of their claims. In response, the company has issued a rare clarification about the steps it takes to secure user information on its craft.

The effects of drone technology have been sufficiently disruptive – or perhaps “threatening” is a better term – to legacy land surveying officials that a North Carolina aerial imaging and mapping service provider is now having to defend attacks on his activity with arguments it’s a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

London-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company Vertical Aerospace is getting a critical extension of its cash runway to develop its air taxi, with a $50 million infusion from company founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick.

Two additional U.S. police departments have been equipped with new drones for use in their law enforcement duties. And once again – despite proliferating government attempts at dissuasion – those forces adopted DJI craft as offering the best solutions available to their budgets, opting for pragmatism over politics.

Though initially considered destined for the ash heap of history when its principal tech partner left the project, the essential drone pilot’s situational awareness and airspace restriction reference tool, B4UFLY, is getting new life from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through an updated version of the app set for release next month.

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has announced the extension of its ground-breaking UAV transportation activities from and around Edmonton International Airport – which at its launch was among the world’s first drone services at a major aviation platform, according to the firm, and the first in Canada.

A cutting-edge UK laser defense asset has been successfully tested against simulated enemy aircraft – which, in a reflection of the swiftly changing nature of conflict these days, cast drones in the supporting role of the doomed invader.

Air taxi developer Archer Aviation has announced a new partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which will initiate their mutual research into future advanced air mobility (AAM) applications with what they see as the lynchpin of the new tech’s performance – powerful but safe batteries.

Drone services company DroneUp has announced reception of what’s currently considered the brass ring of UAV operational capabilities with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization to make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) deliveries without the obligation of ground observers.