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The U.S. Army opened Flightwerx on April 20, a new drone innovation facility in Daleville, Alabama, sitting right outside Fort Rucker. The site is built to train soldiers on unmanned systems, connect them with industry and academia, and feed the Army’s push to close a documented gap in small drone and FPV warfare, as The…
A new drone brand called VooMax has appeared on Amazon with a $649 sub-250-gram drone whose spec sheet reads like a photocopy of the DJI Lito X1 that launched globally this morning. The listing, for the VooMax Breeze Standard Kit, offers a 1/1.32-inch CMOS sensor, f/1.7 aperture, 4K/60fps HDR video, forward-facing LiDAR, omnidirectional obstacle sensing,…
Today, we’re taking a deep dive into DJI’s latest entry-level premium drone, the Lito X1. And I know what you’re thinking — premium and entry-level, they don’t go together, right? Wrong. Because we have a very interesting product that has a ton of things going on without that many compromises. Where the Lito X1 Fits…
Skydio CEO Adam Bry confirms DJI tried to acquire the company in 2014. The rejected deal now anchors the American drone industry against Chinese competitors.
Skydio closed a $110 million Series F on Thursday at a $4.4 billion post-money valuation, with CEO Adam Bry framing the modest raise as the real headline. The San Mateo drone maker was oversubscribed. Existing investors wanted to put in substantially more. Bry turned most of them down. “The most significant fact in our Series…
Fifteen agricultural spray drones were stolen from a New Jersey location last month in what the FBI is treating as a sophisticated, possibly coordinated theft, according to reporting by national security journalists Jack Murphy and Sean D. Naylor at The High Side. The case is unsolved. Retired FBI agent Steve Lazarus told the outlet the…
DJI launched two new sub-249-gram camera drones today, the Lito X1 and Lito 1, aimed squarely at first-time pilots and entry-level creators at a price point that would have moved serious volume at Best Buy. Orders opened April 23, 2026 through store.dji.com and authorized retailers across Europe, the UK, and other international markets. The United…
Prosecutors say the Woodland Hills resident spent years brokering Iranian weapons including a $70 million contract for Mohajer-6 armed drones
Skydio CEO Adam Bry attended in person and helped sponsor the event, alongside former NYPD brass and other law enforcement figures.
DJI upgraded SkyPixel winner Joanna Steidle from Mavic 3 Pro to Mavic 4 Pro after US Customs stranded her original prize, routing the replacement through Europe.
Hi everyone, welcome to 51 Drones and this is the DJI Avata 360. Welcome to my first uncut and raw first experience with this drone. I did this with the
DJI filed a sharply worded brief on April 15, 2026 in its Ninth Circuit fight with the FCC, putting specific numbers on the damage for the first time: 14
A US Navy MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone spent more than 12 hours orbiting the coast of Cuba on April 16, tracing a pattern that passed Havana, Guantanamo
Two FPV pilots flew the same lines at three Icelandic landmarks, one with a DJI Avata 2 and one with a Red Komodo cinelifter worth $15,000 to $20,000. The verdict from their head-to-head video, published by creator Mark Gustov on his YouTube channel, is more nuanced than a pure gear-flex comparison. The Avata 2 kept…
The US approach has leaned toward laser because the precision suits long-range, single-drone missions. China's microwave approach suits
DJI pushed the Mic Mini 2 live on its Hong Kong product page one week before the teased April 28 global reveal, confirming that the “More Than Sound” campaign is a second-generation wireless microphone, not an accessory refresh or a Mic 3 successor. The DJI listing is live with full specs, five configurations, and ten…
Italian retailer Dino Galiano leaked DJI Lito 1 (€339) and Lito X1 (€419) two days before launch. Full specs, forward LIDAR, no US release. Here's what changed.
Pentagon’s FY27 budget earmarks $75B for drones, with $54.6B for DAWG, the largest year-over-year boost of any defense program. Full analysis and what’s next.
IARPA’s RFI-26-01 seeks bio-derived materials for drone turbines and motors that degrade after missions. Responses due May 15. Analysis and what it means.
France’s 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade is using the ORION 26 exercise to break its platoons into small drone-armed combat cells, a doctrinal shift pulled directly from the lessons of the war in Ukraine, as Defence Blog reported. The brigade announced the experiment on April 18, 2026. The goal is blunt. Make infantry harder to find,…
Reliable Robotics closed a $160M round led by Nimble Partners, pushing valuation near $1B as the SpaceX alum-led startup races toward FAA uncrewed cargo cert.
DJI has officially launched its latest smartphone gimbal, the DJI Osmo Mobile 8P, introducing a major design shift with a removable display module.
More than a half dozen drones flew into restricted airspace around Coors Field during the Colorado Rockies’ opening homestand against the Philadelphia Phillies from April 3 through 5, as ESPN reported. Nobody was arrested. The FAA and the FBI issued a joint warning on Thursday, April 16, trying to keep drones out of the stadium…
In yet another product release, DJI has unveiled two new heavy-lift drones: the DJI FlyCart 200 and the DJI T200 with 200kg payload capacity.
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