European Union

German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) plane startup Lilium has obtained authorization from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that will allow it far greater flexibility and range in developing its future battery-powered air taxi toward certification.

Drone pilots in the European Union who are frustrated with the 120-meter altitude limit built into DJI’s latest Mini 4 Pro operating system now have a chance to soar considerably higher using a firmware update – though they’ll need to take action fast and be certain they’re ready to stick with their decision.

AgEagle Aerial Systems says its eBee line of fixed-wing mapping drones has been designated with the C6 class identification label in accordance with Europe’s new drone regulations.

From January 1, 2024, the European Union’s revamped drone regulations will become fully applicable and the open category will benefit from drones with a class identification label. This system categorizes drones based on their weight, capabilities, and intended use, and requires operators to obtain certification for certain categories of drones. The good news is that DJI has already placed several compliant drones on the EU market.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has presented its proposal for air taxi and other next-generation aircraft regulation in a text now awaiting approval or amendment into law by the bloc’s executive body.

The world’s largest drone camera and enterprise applications manufacturer DJI says it will attend the 2023 IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin that starts Friday, the first time the company has participated in the event since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, and timed as the giant weathers turbulence from protectionist blacklisting in the US.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is deploying another aerial drone to monitor boat activity in France’s English Channel waters, expanding the number of UAVs the organization has scouring shipping lanes for – among other things – emissions violations.

German UAV manufacturer and service provider Wingcopter has received a major cash infusion from the European Investment Bank (EIB) of €40 million ($43.8 million), designed to fund scaling of the company’s international drone delivery activities.

The European Commission, the executive body of the 27-member European Union (EU), is soliciting input from various actors in the UAV sector to help formulate unified guidelines and identify effective counter-drone platforms to mitigate potential threats from small aircraft.

French drone and sensor developer Delair has revealed its UX11 craft has become the world’s first enterprise UAV to receive European Union C6 categorization, allowing it to be operated for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights without previous authorization from regulators.

The European Union (EU) has announced the operational launch of the High Accuracy Service (HAS) positioning system from its Galileo global navigation satellite platform – a location-fixing application that becomes available free of charge to myriad users worldwide, including drone operators.

DJI has launched the application process for Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine users who wish to obtain the C1 class identification label for their aircraft under the new European drone regulations. Here’s how to get one for your drone…

The European Commission is moving to accelerate the use and diversification of UAV services across the European Union (EU) with the adoption of its Drone Strategy 2.0, which, in addition to tapping into what’s expected to be a vigorous growth area, seeks to reduce the opportunities for malevolent actors to abuse the technology.

Middle-mile drone delivery specialist Dronamics is revving up its push to prepare aerial transport services with an upcoming round of fundraising that has already received a $2.6 million head start grant from the European Commission’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program.

China’s leading developer of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) planes for air taxi operation, EHang, is broadening its work with authorities in Europe to help usher in urban air mobility (UAM) operating systems and services.

Brussels will host the EU Drone Days, an event being held November 29-30 to inform interested business, governmental, and public parties about the European Commission’s Drone Strategy 2.0 for introducing UAV activity as an integrated part of daily life and work.

In the third and last installment of DroneDJ’s interview with Bobby Healy, the irrepressible Manna Aero CEO pivots from his plans to introduce drone delivery around Europe to discuss his strategy for launch in the potentially enormous US market. That involves certification of Manna’s proprietary UAVs; introduction and expansion of drone transport through widening suburban “cohorts of scale”; and raising the considerable capital that will require with, most likely, a Wall Street flotation. Should he get the company there, Manna might well have reached the solid, advanced state of growth to allow Healy to move on to his next challenge.

Manna Aero CEO Bobby Healy is preparing to nearly quadruple the company’s current potential client base in Ireland with the start of drone deliveries in a large Dublin-area town in a few months. From there, he plans to launch activity in European Union nations he considers ready for aerial services. Healy tells DroneDJ in the second part of our interview why he believes its regulations put the EU in particularly strong position to take the global lead in emerging UAV-based services; how Manna’s full-stack drone manufacturing and operation model gives it a business advantage; and why a trained programmer who successfully built two tech travel sector companies decided drone deliveries would be his next challenge.

Tech entrepreneur Bobby Healy’s objective is as simple as it is enormous. He wants to use the momentum he’s created establishing Manna Aero as Ireland’s hottest aerial tech business to transform it into the biggest and best drone delivery company on the planet. And to do that, he’s readying its launch across the European Union in the coming months, with the US following hard on that.

EHang, the China-based developer of next-generation aircraft for use in urban air mobility (UAM) services, has taken another step in its efforts to usher in the launch of air taxis around the globe by successfully completing demonstration flights of its EH216 in a European Union-sanctioned event.

European drone research and promotion organization AiRMOUR has released the results of its large opinion survey of sector stakeholders and members of the public on attitudes toward use of UAVs in different activities – particularly in response to medical emergencies. While not necessarily surprising, the findings bode well for increased acceptance of the craft operating in European Union skies in future.