Virginia

News, deep dives, and analysis — every Virginia story, newest first.

Articles

Beats covered

Reporters on beat

Aug 29

Last updated

Amazon Prime Air MK30 delivery drone on a launch pad

Virginia · Amazon

Amazon Pitches Richmond on Drone Delivery It Is Not Yet Cleared to Fly

Amazon showed Richmond an MK30 and promised Prime Air from its Henrico fulfillment center, but federal and landlord approvals are still pending.

Haye KestelooAug 297 min read

James City County AED delivery drone used in the Virginia pilot

Drone as First Responder

James City County Flies Virginia's First AED Drone Trial

James City County, Virginia will begin dispatching AED-carrying drones to suspected cardiac arrest calls on August 1, starting a five-mile pilot around Fire Station 1 in Toano. The Duke- and VCU-led RESTORe-CARE study is expanding from North Carolina into a second live U.S. county program.

Rafael SuárezJul 20

Duke Health drone carrying an AED payload during a live 911 response study

AED

Duke Health Drones Now Fly AEDs To Real 911 Calls

Duke Health researchers are dispatching AED-carrying drones to live 911 cardiac arrest calls in North Carolina, testing whether autonomous delivery can beat ambulances by the minutes that decide survival.

Haye KestelooJul 14

The High Cost of Security: Why the "Pain" of a DJI Ban Means Lives Lost, Not Just Lost Profits - Drones Favored by Utah Search and Rescue Crews: Enhancing Efficiency in Wilderness Operations

Amazon

DRONERESPONDERS Warns Public Safety Drones And Delivery Fleets Are On A Collision Course Over UTM

America now has roughly four registered drones for every registered crewed aircraft, and a public safety official is warning that the country has no agreed system for deciding which one moves out of the way. In a piece published June 24 in Homeland Security Today, Charles Werner, director of the DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance, laid…

Haye KestelooJun 29

United States

Dominion Energy Runs 50 Drones on America’s Grid

When Dominion Energy’s grid operators noticed an unexpected power drop at the Colonial Trail West solar farm in Surry County, Virginia this June, they didn’t send a lineman. They sent a drone. Pilot Aaron Colgrove pulled up the mission from Dominion’s D-ROC, the company’s drone remote operations center, told the unit to head to the…

Rafael SuárezJun 26

NASA

NASA Langley Flew Donated Kidneys 7.5 Miles By Drone, And The Aircraft It Chose Says Everything

NASA researchers in Hampton, Virginia, put two human kidneys on a heavy-lift drone and flew them in 7.5-mile loops beyond the operator’s line of sight, then biopsied the organs to check for damage. They found none. The June 5 flights at NASA Langley Research Center reached a peak height of 250 feet across two roughly…

Haye KestelooJun 26

Walmart

Walmart and Wing Plan Drone Deliveries in Maricopa

Walmart is moving drone delivery into seven new markets, and Maricopa, Arizona is confirmed on the list. The company announced the expansion in early June 2026, naming Wing as its delivery partner for the greater Phoenix area push. No launch date exists yet. The whole project sits in the pre-application phase right now, working through…

Rafael SuárezJun 25

Police

Newport News Sends Drones to 911 Calls in 90 Seconds

Newport News, Virginia is about to start sending drones to 911 calls before officers or firefighters arrive, with some aircraft reaching a scene in under 90 seconds. The city has eight drones staged at four launch sites, ready to lift off after high-priority calls like a homicide, a shooting, a missing person, or a medical…

Rafael SuárezJun 21

Virginia

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.