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Two Harvard mechanical engineering seniors have built a fixed-wing VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) drone from scratch to help marine biologists locate sperm whales tagged with VHF (very high frequency) transmitters off the coast of Dominica, according to a project profile published by Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Kuma McCraw…
Avinox, DJI’s e-bike drive system brand, has announced its next-generation M2S and M2 drive units, targeting the high-performance end of the e-bike market with peak outputs that put them closer to light electric motorcycles than traditional mid-drive systems. The M2S tops out at 1,500W and 150 Nm of torque, while the M2 reaches 1,100W and…
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase, used his annual letter to shareholders, released April 6, 2026, to call explicitly for the United States to rapidly develop and produce drones domestically, and to announce a $1.5 trillion, 10-year initiative that names drones as one of five priority investment areas. The full letter…
DJI officially announced the Osmo Pocket 4 launch event via a teaser posted to DJI’s X account on April 9, 2026. The post carries the tagline “The World In My Pocket” and sets the reveal for April 16, 2026, at 12 PM GMT. The teaser confirms what months of leaks already showed: the Pocket 4…
Ukraine’s anti-monopoly committee sent back an application for a $760 million acquisition of a 30% stake in FirePoint, the country’s top long-range drone and missile maker, according to a written response the committee gave to Reuters on April 8, 2026. The committee confirmed that the counterparty was EDGE Group, the Abu Dhabi-based state defense conglomerate.…
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has codified the Vidun fixed-wing interceptor drone for operational use by the Armed Forces, according to Defender Media, a Ukrainian defense publication that reported on the codification on April 4, 2026. The article’s title, “Fixed-Wing Interceptor Vidun Codified: Can Reach 6 km Altitude and Stay Airborne for Over Two Hours,” was…
Terra Drone Corporation has announced a strategic investment in Ukraine-based Amazing Drones LLC and the joint launch of a new interceptor drone called the Terra A1, according to a company announcement. The deal was structured through Terra Drone’s subsidiary Terra Inspectioneering and combines a capital stake with a full business alliance. Terra Drone formally entered…
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 showed up in close-up photos posted today by OsitaLV (@OsitaLV on X), a verified DJI BBS pilot and aerial filmmaker with 24,000 followers. The two images show the camera body and quick-start guide inside what appears to be a carrying case, giving the clearest look yet at the physical hardware.…
The DJI Neo 2 ships with three preset tracking distances in follow mode, and most pilots never go beyond them. A new tutorial from Stewart Caroll of Drone Film Guide shows there is a way to override those limits using nothing but a phone — no controller required — by combining Spotlight mode with the…
Daniel Riley of RCTESTFLIGHT built a 41-inch variable pitch quadcopter using belt-drive reduction and fixed-RPM motors, measuring 18.1 g/watt in hover flight.
A hit-and-run suspect who crashed into two cars and ran through residential yards in Beaverton, Oregon, didn’t get far. Washington County’s new Drone as First Responder program tracked him from above and guided deputies straight to him. The arrest on April 2 gave the six-week-old trial program one of its most visible results yet, as…
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 just went from packaging leaks to hands-on video. The first unboxing footage of the upcoming gimbal camera has surfaced on YouTube, and it includes a specific claim: the official launch date is April 16, 2026. If that holds, DJI’s most anticipated camera of the year arrives sooner than most of…
Hermeus, the Atlanta-based defense aviation company developing high-Mach unmanned aircraft, has closed a $350 million Series C round that values the company at $1 billion. The round, announced today, was led by Khosla Ventures and brings Hermeus’ total capital raised past $500 million. The funding arrives weeks after the company’s Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 completed its…
Ukraine’s General Cherry and Croatian drone manufacturer Orqa have signed a memorandum of cooperation to jointly develop and manufacture interceptor drones and counter-drone systems in Europe, according to Unmanned Airspace. The agreement pairs General Cherry’s three years of live C-UAS combat knowledge with Orqa’s established production infrastructure in Croatia. Joint manufacturing facilities ar
The Verge confirms no company is replacing DJI in the US consumer drone market. Defense money absorbed every startup. DroneXL's Kesteloo quoted throughout.
The BBC used 950 drones to recreate the RMS Titanic above the very waters where the original ship was built.
WSJ reveals Tesla, Figure AI humanoid robots depend on Chinese parts. Congress is using the same ban strategy it deployed against DJI drones.
Oregon DOA files FCC drone dominance comments proposing three mountain test sites, spectrum reform, and a waiver process for public safety drone operations.
Somewhere in Germany, a massive bridge is being built. Somewhere in Spain, a drone pilot is watching it happen in real time — without leaving the office. That’s not science fiction. That’s the DJI Dock 2 doing its thing, as Heliguy reported. Skyports Drone Services has partnered with construction giant HOCHTIEF to deploy a fully-automated…
Skydio opens a Zürich R&D office focused on GPS-denied navigation and multi-drone coordination, led by a PhD alum of the lab that trained him.
FCC Public Notice DA 26-314 asks the drone industry to fix spectrum access, licensing delays, and Counter-UAS legal barriers before the 2027 exemption cliff.
Mithril Defense is deploying Black Arrow drones in Florida high schools to stop active shooters in 15 seconds. Two states are funding it. Here's what the WSJ missed.
Researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University’s (NPU) School of Civil Aviation in Xi’an, China have published what they describe as the world’s first open-source flight control system built specifically for bamboo-frame unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), releasing the software and hardware configuration files free to any developer worldwide. The paper appeared on February 28 in the journal…
The DJI Avata 360 just got a firmware update that changes the conversation. If you’ve been on the fence about pulling the trigger, this might be the moment. Let’s get into what’s new — and why it actually matters for real flying. Update, April 7, 2026: Since this article was published, it’s become clear that…
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