DEALS
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.

1,178
Articles
144
Beats covered
2025
Writing since
Aug 13
Latest story
Sort
Skydio R10 Heads to the DEA. And the Drone World Has Opinions.
Skydio

Skydio R10 Heads to the DEA. And the Drone World Has Opinions.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is buying Skydio R10 indoor drones. The aircraft is genuinely impressive. The procurement process is a different story. The Drone That Goes Where Officers Cannot The Skydio R10 is the first American-made drone purpose-built for indoor public safety operations and the DEA just made it their aircraft of choice, as Defence…

DJI Wants Developers to Build the Future of Aerial AI. The Prize Is Real.
DJI

DJI Wants Developers to Build the Future of Aerial AI. The Prize Is Real.

DJI just opened a competition that could change what drones are capable of. Not the hardware. The brain. The DJI Enterprise Drone Onboard AI Challenge 2026 is not a drone racing event. It is not a photography contest. It is DJI saying, out loud, to every developer and researcher on the planet: we have built…

OPUS Project Drones Are Flying Into Tornadoes. For Science.
Police

OPUS Project Drones Are Flying Into Tornadoes. For Science.

Nobody handed the OTUS Project a research budget and a lab. Three friends on a midnight phone call in February 2024 decided to build drones from scratch and fly them into one of the most violent forces on Earth. Less than three months later, Louis Tucker flew the first drone inside a tornado. History made.…

Drones Hit Amazon's Datacenters. The Cloud Just Got a Lot More Fragile.
Amazon

Drones Hit Amazon’s Datacenters. The Cloud Just Got a Lot More Fragile.

Three Amazon Web Services facilities in the Middle East are offline. Two were directly struck by drones in the UAE. A third in Bahrain was damaged by a drone strike close enough to knock it out, as The Register reported. This is the first time in history that a military adversary has successfully attacked a…

Europe Picked Airbus to Build Its Next Military Drone. Here Is What That Means.
Airbus

Europe Picked Airbus to Build Its Next Military Drone. Here Is What That Means.

Europe has a drone problem. Not a shortage of them. A shortage of the right ones, built by Europeans, owned by Europeans, and answerable to European defense priorities rather than foreign supply chains. The M2UAS project is one piece of the answer, and Airbus just won the contract to build it. One Drone. Every Mission.…

Skydio Is Already Patrolling Santa Fe. Now the City Has to Decide If It Stays
Skydio

Skydio Is Already Patrolling Santa Fe. Now the City Has to Decide If It Stays

A woman passed counterfeit bills at three businesses on Cerrillos Road. Instead of sending a patrol officer to drive the corridor looking for her, Santa Fe police clicked a mouse and put a Skydio X10 in the air, as Santa Fe New Mexican reported. Two minutes after launch, the drone was hovering above the intersection…

— The DroneXL Briefing · Free

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.

One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.

8,400+
Articles published
340+
Beats & desks
2020
Covering drones since
100%
Independent