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.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has seized eight drones flown inside the Federal Aviation Administration’s Temporary Flight Restriction zone around Houston 2026 FIFA World Cup venues since the tournament opened. One operator now faces felony charges, per KHOU, after DPS Air Ops tracked the aircraft to roughly 900 feet (274 m) over a restricted area. It is the first major US sporting event…
Skydio CEO Adam Bry published a long-form article on X on June 8 making a direct case against the trend of building large quadcopters for Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs. His argument is not marketing. It is a physics-driven attack on the entire premise that a bigger drone with a bigger camera is the…
Manna has issued an official response to Fingal County Council’s May 19 refusal of its Coolmine drone delivery hub, anchoring its defence on a Trinity College Dublin acoustic study and on World Health Organization, EU, EASA, ISO, and Irish EPA noise standards. The company told DroneXL through its public relations team on June 18 that planning frameworks built…
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has published its Test and Evaluation Annual Report 2025-2026, and the numbers inside are the kind of evidence American operators have been asking the FAA to produce for years. CAP 3266 documents 1,672 distinct BVLOS flights and over 350 flight hours collected from industry partners between October 2024 and March…
A sub-250-gram (8.8 oz) drone built by a Czech engineering shop just clocked 351.4 mph (565.4 km/h) on a two-way speed run and smashed the standing world record for its category. Born4Flight’s SH250G SpeedHunter, flown by founder Jakub Espandr on May 28, beat the previous mark of 222.7 mph (358.36 km/h) set in Tianjin, China…
Teledyne FLIR Defense pulled the wrap off Black Recon at Eurosatory on June 15, framing it as the first vehicle-mounted micro-drone system that launches, recovers, and recharges itself without the crew ever stepping outside. Three UAVs rotate from a single dock for continuous overwatch, each one weighing under 450 grams (15.9 oz) and flying for…
Port St. Lucie’s police department flipped the switch on its new Drone as First Responder program on June 11, and the system did not wait long to prove itself. Within hours, a remotely launched drone located a missing autistic woman before she could reach a nearby canal, arriving on scene ahead of the responding officers.…
Ag spray drones have moved from novelty to revenue stream in the U.S. Corn Belt, and the operators flying them have strong opinions about which platforms hold up over a full season. Prairie Farmer recently spoke with three Illinois custom operators about the aircraft and trailers they actually run. Their answers line up around two…
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