Rafael Suárez is a drone pilot and commercial videographer with more than 20 years behind the lens, flying and filming with drones since 2016. He wrote for DroneXL on drone news, hardware, and developments shaping the industry. Rafa is based in Quito, Ecuador.
The Fly Like A Girl academy outside Pittsburgh has trained more than 100 high school girls to fly drones since 2023 and helped nearly a dozen of them earn FAA Part 107 certificates.
HoverAir is teasing a detachable camera module with latch hardware and gold contacts, raising the prospect of a modular self-flying camera and reviving comparisons to GoPro’s Karma.
Seattle Fire’s first public meeting on its proposed ERAT drone program drew just one resident and one child as the department made the case for rescue and fire-scene aircraft in 2027.
California says its AI-enabled ALERTCalifornia cameras have flagged more than 900 fires before any 911 call, while FireSat satellites and drone programs deepen the state’s wildfire tech stack.
Spokane police say four Skydio X10 drones flew about 400 missions in three weeks, including a pursuit where the aircraft tracked suspects overhead after patrol cars backed off.
As Utah’s Babylon Fire nears full containment, incident teams say drones helped locate hot spots, monitor rough terrain, and confirm a fresh lightning strike before it could start another blaze.
Lincolnshire Police used its drone unit to track a mini moto rider across roads and footpaths in Gainsborough, ending the chase with an arrest instead of a dangerous ground pursuit.
Saronic says it will spend $3 billion to build Port Alpha in Brownsville, a Texas shipyard for autonomous and crewed vessels that could reshape the industrial scale of maritime drone production.
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