News, deep dives, and analysis — every Minnesota story, newest first.
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
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota’s City Council unanimously approved a $4.6 million expansion of its police technology contract to implement a Drone as First Responder program, bringing the department’s total 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise to $12.4 million. The November 10 vote positions the Minneapolis suburb as the latest American city replacing Chinese-made drones with U.S. alternatives…
University of Minnesota researchers successfully completed their 11th field trial of autonomous AI-powered drone swarms that analyze wildfire smoke patterns in three dimensions, marking a significant step toward deploying academic research for real-world emergency response as climate change intensifies fire seasons nationwide. On October 24, graduate student Nikil Krishnakumar stood on a 30-acre p
An ambitious "Drone as a First Responder" (DFR) Minnetonka program, a system designed to give police departments an immediate eye in the sky
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