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Greg from Pilot Institute answers real-time questions on FAA drone registration, flying over people, Part 107 requirements, filming private property, and drone career opportunities.
The FCC is accepting public comments on DJI's covered entity list status until May 11, 2026. Here's why your voice matters — and the economic numbers to use. (~154 chars)
The New York Times rode along with a Ukrainian An-28 crew firing a Minigun at Russian Shaheds for $500 a kill. The same plane has 222 confirmed kills.
The FCC's reply comment window on DJI's and Autel's Covered List petitions closes Monday, May 11. How to file in dockets 26-22 and 26-23.
Titan Batteries opened a UAV pack line at Bosch's Tilburg campus on May 2, claiming first drone battery production on two continents.
DJI launched the Osmo Mobile 8P globally on May 7 with the FrameTap detachable remote. Starting at €159. No U.S. sale due to FCC Covered List restrictions.
Kansas State University Salina is putting agricultural drone spray operations directly in farmers’ hands. The university’s UAS program is offering a two-day in-person course covering everything from regulatory compliance to live spray missions, with the next session scheduled for May 28-29, as KSAL reported. What the Course Actually Covers The course is called UAS Aerial…
Canada's military has activated counter-drone systems at naval bases, but Halifax Harbor exposes the hard problem: telling hostile drones from civilian ones.
DIRT picks up where that training ends. A drone that has crashed, been shot down, been abandoned, or been found near sensitive infrastructure
Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s engineer battalion at Fort Riley, Kansas, spent the last week of April launching one-way strike drones in a series of live experimentation events with a small defense contractor, as DVIDS reported. The exercise has a name: the Diehard One-Way Strike Drone Experimentation Series. The mission concept it’s testing is…
A small startup in Rolla, Missouri is building what may be the nation’s first rural health care drone corridor, and the clock it’s racing isn’t measured in minutes. It’s measured in whether an organ donor’s tissue reaches a matching recipient in time to save a life, as FOX News reported. The Problem No One Talks…
European defense ministries now have a single platform to browse, compare, and deploy drones from across the continent, as reported by Agence Europe. Amsterdam-based Intelic launched BASE on May 4, describing it as the first procurement hub of its kind in Europe and the answer to a fragmentation problem that’s been slowing European rearmament since…
The U.S. Navy has selected Insitu to continue providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services to the Navy, Marine Corps, and other federal customers, as Sea Power Magazine reported. The award covers both the ScanEagle and Integrator platforms under a Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated model, which puts Insitu’s own aircraft and operators on the mission rather than handing…
Leander, Texas, is putting two Skydio drones on actual 911 calls for two weeks to decide whether the city needs a permanent Drone as First Responder program, as CBS Austin reported. The trial runs May 4-15 and deploys the aircraft to real incidents, not simulations. A Fast-Growing City With a Response Problem Leander isn’t a…
The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a Phase II contract to advance its Improved Threat Detection System, as reported on a press release. The award, following a competitive Phase I that included Lockheed Martin, puts Northrop’s ATHENA sensor on track to replace the aging warning systems currently protecting Army aviation. Why the Army Needs…
Olathe pulled its drone ordinance. The FAA pulled the ICE NOTAM. The fight for US drone pilots' rights spans every level of government now.
Purdue University just put its full weight behind a future where one drone pilot coordinates dozens of aircraft at once. The Indiana research powerhouse is expanding a cluster of AI and autonomy programs that could fundamentally reshape how drones operate at scale. Building the Brain for Autonomous Flight The centerpiece of Purdue’s effort is AIDA3,…
The FAA's long-awaited Section 2209 NPRM proposes a new 14 CFR Part 74 framework with two designation tiers for restricting drones over fixed-site facilities.
The point was not to have drone operators train drone operators. It was to force combined arms units to work with aerial intelligence in real time
The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District is putting autonomous sail drones on the water starting this month. Running from May through October 2026, these uncrewed surface vehicles will patrol all five Great Lakes as part of a contract focused on maritime domain awareness, as reported by MLive. The mission: monitor vessel traffic, gather weather…
St. Charles County, Missouri just passed the ordinance it needed to get drones over emergency calls. The county council approved a measure allowing the St. Charles County Police Department to establish memorandums of understanding with schools, municipal facilities, and other local partners willing to host drone docking stations, as reported by Spectrum Local News. The…
A group of ninth and tenth graders at a North Las Vegas charter school are spending their electives doing something most drone enthusiasts wish they’d started earlier: flying, crashing, troubleshooting, and doing it again. They’re not playing. They have a certification to chase, as Las Vegas Sun reported. The Class That Started With Code Richard…
A Chinese research team has flown what it calls the world’s first fixed-wing drone built largely from bamboo. The tilt-rotor UAV took off from a field in Tianjin, climbed, transitioned to forward flight, and came back down on its own rotors, as reported by China Daily. More than a quarter of its airframe is made…
Poland is building a national drone armada, and it’s asking Ukraine to design it. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the joint program on April 27 in Rzeszów, standing alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko at a security conference held roughly 50 miles from the Ukrainian border, as Antikor.ua reported. The structure is straightforward: Poland…
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