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Rafael Suárez

Rafael Suárez

Rafael Suárez is a drone journalist and content creator with more than 20 years behind the lens. He began in film photography in 1998, moved to digital in 2005, and has been flying and filming with drones since 2016. As a commercial videographer he has produced work for premium brands including BMW, Porsche, and MINI, and his documentary work champions a #flysafe mentality across the industry. Based in Quito, Ecuador, he covers drone news, hardware, and the policy and business shaping the industry for DroneXL, and shares reviews and cinematic flight on his YouTube channel. A dad and a lifelong aviation nerd, he's happiest when something is in the air.

1,179
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144
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2025
Writing since
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DRAGON Drone Reshapes Itself Midair To Fit Through Gaps
Drone Research

DRAGON Drone Reshapes Itself Midair To Fit Through Gaps

The University of Tokyo’s JSK Lab flew DRAGON v1.5, a drone that changes its own shape in the air, in a live demonstration on the Komaba Campus in Tokyo. The robot bends and curls to pass through gaps that would stop a fixed-frame drone, and it does it autonomously, using only its onboard sensors. Now…

DJI Tello Flown By Brainwaves In Open-Source BCI
DJI

DJI Tello Flown By Brainwaves In Open-Source BCI

Upside Down Labs, the open-source biosensing company, built a real-time brain-computer interface that flies a Ryze Tello using signals read straight off the human body. The system pulls EEG brain activity, EMG muscle activity, and EOG eye movement through the company’s Neuro PlayGround Lite board, converts them into flight commands, and sends them to the…

Conroe Police Skydio X10 DFR Funded By Asset Forfeiture
Skydio

Conroe Police Skydio X10 DFR Funded By Asset Forfeiture

Chief Jon Buckholtz announced the rollout at a press conference, confirming that the Conroe City Council authorized the purchase of two Skydio X10 drones and two docking stations in December 2025 using asset forfeiture funds. "We purchased this with money that was seized from criminals, in order to fight criminals," Buckholtz said.

Charleston Drone Show Honors Battle of Sullivan's Island
Drone Light Show

Charleston Drone Show Honors Battle of Sullivan’s Island

Hundreds of drones lifted off above Charleston Harbor on Saturday night, retelling the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in light formations above the U.S. Custom House as part of the Revolutionary Skies celebration. The show capped a Carolina Day program organized by SC250 Charleston, the city’s coordinating body for South Carolina’s 250th anniversary commemorations, and ran…

Airbus Kawasaki Eurodrone ASW Variant Hunts Pacific Subs
Airbus

Airbus Kawasaki Eurodrone ASW Variant Hunts Pacific Subs

Airbus and Kawasaki Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding on June 26 to develop an anti-submarine and maritime patrol version of the Eurodrone for the Japanese market. The deal is the first concrete export pull for a European medium-altitude long-endurance UAV that has not yet flown. Japan joined the broader Eurodrone program in November…

Overhead black-and-white view of a DJI Phantom quadcopter surrounded by folding DJI Mavic drones and other multirotors arranged on a white surface
Skydio

Skydio X10 Helps Illinois PD Rescue 3 In Kishwaukee River

Cherry Valley Police Department in Illinois used a Skydio X10 with thermal imaging, a spotlight, and a speaker payload to locate and guide three stranded people out of the Kishwaukee River on the night of June 25, 2026. All three were unhurt when the Cherry Valley Fire Protection District took them to safety. The Winnebago…

Corvus Robotics Drones Cut GNC Backorders to 98 a Day
Amazon

Corvus Robotics Drones Cut GNC Backorders to 98 a Day

At a GNC nutritional supplement warehouse in Whitestown, Indiana, four small drones fly overhead every day. They count more than 2,000 plastic-wrapped pallets nobody wanted to count by hand. The aircraft come from Corvus Robotics, a startup building autonomous indoor flyers tuned for warehouse inventory work. Since GNC brought the program online two years ago,…

Eldora Police Drone Thermal Cam Finds Iowa Felony Suspect
Police

Eldora Police Drone Thermal Cam Finds Iowa Felony Suspect

A man wanted on felony warrants tried to vanish into a tall grass field in Eldora, Iowa on June 23, and a police drone with a thermal camera put him on the ground within minutes. The Eldora Police Department, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office, and the State Center Police Department served a search warrant at…

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8,400+
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2020
Covering drones since
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