Drone News
DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Photographed Up Close by OsitaLV Ahead of Expected April Launch
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…
DJI Neo 2 Has a Phone-Only Spotlight Trick That Blows Past the Preset Tracking Distances
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…
RCTESTFLIGHT Builds 41-Inch Variable Pitch Quadcopter That Outperforms Direct Drive on Efficiency
Daniel Riley, the engineer behind the RCTESTFLIGHT YouTube channel, has published a new video documenting a years-long project to build a large-format quadcopter with variable pitch rotor blades, belt-drive reduction, and fixed-RPM motors. The result is a 41-inch, gear-reduced quadcopter…
Drone Catches Fleeing Driver in Beaverton Backyards
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…
First DJI Pocket 4 Unboxing Points to April 16 Launch
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.…
Hermeus raises $350M to build the fastest unmanned aircraft in the world
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…
General Cherry and Orqa Sign MoU to Build Counter-Drone Systems on European Soil
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…
The Verge Confirms What We’ve Been Saying: Nobody Is Replacing DJI, and Drones Are Now for War
The Verge published a major report today asking the question every American drone pilot has been asking since December: who fills the DJI-shaped hole? Senior editor Sean Hollister interviewed me, Vic Moss, cofounder of the Drone Service Providers Alliance, Antigravity…
BBC’s Secret 950-Drone Titanic Stuns Belfast Harbor
A full-scale ghost ship sailed out of Belfast Harbour last week, and almost nobody in the city knew it was coming. The BBC used 950 drones to recreate the RMS Titanic above the very waters where the original ship was…
WSJ exposes Chinese parts inside America’s humanoid robots, and Congress is already running the DJI playbook
The Wall Street Journal published an investigation this week revealing that America’s most prominent humanoid robots, including Tesla’s Optimus and products from Figure AI, depend heavily on Chinese-manufactured components for their most basic physical functions. The WSJ report (paywall) by…
Oregon Tells FCC: Build Drone Test Sites in Mountains, Not Just Labs
The Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV) has drafted an eight-point response to the Federal Communications Commission’s April 1 public notice on “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” (GN Docket No. 26-74), and it reads less like a bureaucratic comment filing and more…
No Pilot Required: Skyports and HOCHTIEF Are Surveying a German Bridge From Spain
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…
Skydio Opens Zürich R&D Office, Returning Its Own Alumni to the Lab That Trained Them
Skydio has opened a research and development office in Zürich, Switzerland, its second European R&D location and the first focused specifically on flight autonomy, with work targeting autonomous multi-drone systems, GPS-denied navigation, and real-time edge computing. The company announced the…
FCC Opens Public Comment on Spectrum and Licensing Reforms to Advance U.S. Drone Industry
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released Public Notice DA 26-314 on April 1, 2026, asking the drone industry, investors, and defense stakeholders what the agency needs to fix to help the United States lead the global drone race. Comments are…
Mithril Defense Puts Pepper-Gel Drones in High School Hallways — And Two States Are Paying for It
A Wall Street Journal investigation published April 5, 2026 put a national spotlight on Mithril Defense, the Austin, Texas startup deploying fleets of rapid-response drones inside American high schools as part of its Campus Guardian Angel platform. Florida has committed…
Chinese Researchers Release Open-Source Flight Control Software for Bamboo Drones
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…
DJI Avata 360 Firmware Update: This Is the Unlock You’ve Been Waiting For
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…
Mystery Drones Over Barksdale AFB: What We Actually Know
Here’s what we know for certain: someone flew drones over one of America’s most sensitive military installations, and the Air Force still doesn’t know who. What we don’t know yet will shape the conversation around airspace security, operator intent, and…
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