News, deep dives, and analysis — every Minnesota story, newest first.
The St Paul Police Department’s new dock-based Drone as First Responder program flew 472 missions in its first four weeks, already passing the 436 patrol-drone flights the department logged in all of 2025. The three rooftop Skydio X10 drones went live on May 30 and now reach calls in under 90 seconds, a number St…
The City of Bloomington, Minnesota, will spend the next two weeks running a Drone as First Responder pilot using Skydio X10 aircraft and the Skydio Dock, the city announced on May 15. The testing period begins the week of May 18 and is intended to give city staff a working view of what DFR technology…
Rosemount, Minnesota, is the latest American community to put a drone in the hands of its police department, and the numbers surrounding its launch say more about the broader trend than any single agency announcement. The Rosemount Police Department launched its Unmanned Aerial System program under a policy adopted January 1, 2026. Nine officers have…
Minneapolis-based photojournalist Rob Levine filed a petition for judicial review Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, directly challenging NOTAM FDC 6/4375 — the FAA security notice that bans all drone flights within 3,000 feet laterally and 1,000 feet vertically of Department of Homeland Security facilities and mobile assets, including…
Minnesota drone sightings are fueling surveillance fears following ICE's Operation Metro Surge. Learn how FAA NOTAM FDC 6/4375 and Skydio X10D drones are creating an "invisible" compliance trap for pilots while escalating tensions in immigrant communities.
Flying indoors with a drone requires a different kind of discipline. No GPS lock, no obstacle avoidance to lean on, confined spaces where prop wash bounces off stone walls and wooden pews. Father Mitchell Bechtold, a 40-year-old Catholic priest serving parishes in central Minnesota, logged roughly 100 hours of outdoor flight time before he ever…
The Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District has begun using drones to locate mosquito breeding sites and stop outbreaks before
Skydio has launched Paraverse, a free browser-based simulation platform that replicates the company’s entire drone operations ecosystem, allowing pilots and program managers to train, test integrations, and build missions in a virtual environment before deploying actual hardware. The platform represents a significant departure from traditional flight simulators by mirroring not just aircraft contr
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