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Solar Impulse 2 Crashes Into Gulf After Skydweller Conversion
Drone Incidents

Solar Impulse 2 Crashes Into Gulf After Skydweller Conversion

The aircraft that once made aviation history by circumnavigating the globe on sunlight alone is now at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Solar Impulse 2, the record-setting solar plane built by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, crashed during an autonomous test flight on May 4 after losing power. No one was on board,…

Oklahoma City Drone Finds Armed Suspect, Robot Ends Standoff
Skydio

Oklahoma City Drone Finds Armed Suspect, Robot Ends Standoff

Oklahoma City police handled a potentially deadly standoff last month without a single injury using two tools that are becoming standard equipment in modern patrol operations: a drone and a tactical robot, as reported by Officer. The April 8 incident on SW 96th Street is another data point in a pattern that’s accelerating across American…

DJI SkyPixel 2026: The Best Drone Photos on the Planet
DJI

DJI SkyPixel 2026: The Best Drone Photos on the Planet

DJI just announced the winners of the 11th Annual SkyPixel Photo and Video Contest, and if you were feeling reasonably good about your drone footage, I’d recommend not scrolling too far. The competition drew nearly 95,000 submissions from 96 countries, with a prize pool worth over $200,000. The results are, frankly, humbling. The Gate: The…

The DJI Flip Is Ugly. Buy It Anyway.
DJI

The DJI Flip Is Ugly. Buy It Anyway.

Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: the DJI Flip is not a pretty drone. It looks like someone strapped a camera to a tiny bicycle and called it a day. I’ve stared at it from multiple angles hoping it would grow on me, and it hasn’t. But here’s the thing — it…

South Carolina Moves to Criminalize Prison Drone Drops
DJI

South Carolina Moves to Criminalize Prison Drone Drops

South Carolina lawmakers are closing a gap that’s been frustrating law enforcement for years. A bill dubbed the South Carolina Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act cleared a Senate committee unanimously this week, following a unanimous House vote last month, as the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported. If it becomes law, the state will finally…

Paladin Drones Lawsuit: Ex-VP Accused of Sabotaging $9M Funding Round
Paladin Drones

Paladin Drones Floats $8,000 30-Day DFR Trial As Flock Hands Out Free Pilots

Paladin Drones is offering public safety agencies a 30-day pilot of its Drone as First Responder system for $8,000, with the entry fee credited back against a full contract for up to three consecutive 30-day periods. The Houston company announced the offer on X Monday, telling agencies to book a demo before June 30 to…

DJI Air 4 Caught In Chinese Flight-Filing App, The First Registry-Level Sighting
DJI

DJI Air 4 Caught In Chinese Flight-Filing App, The First Registry-Level Sighting

The DJI Air 4 has surfaced inside a Chinese drone flight-reporting app, sitting in a dropdown menu of selectable aircraft alongside the already-shipping Insta360 Antigravity A1. The screenshot, posted Monday by drone leaker Igor Bogdanov on X with the caption “Caught…Air 4,” is the first known appearance of the unannounced model in a regulatory-adjacent piece…

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