Drone Competition

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Sep 1

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AVIDrone Katana unmanned helicopter drone hovering against a clear blue sky, showing its main rotor, long tail boom, tail rotor and four-legged landing gear

Drone Competition · Technology

DARPA Doubles Lift Challenge Payload After 5 Of 76 Teams Scored

DARPA brings the Lift Challenge back in summer 2028 with the minimum payload doubled to 220 pounds and the course doubled to 10 nautical miles.

Haye KestelooSep 15 min read

A DJI enterprise drone hovers beside the ornate green-tiled eaves of a multi-story wooden Chinese heritage tower, with the gray-roofed old town spread out below.

DJI

DJI Opens Heritage 3D Contest. US National Parks Are Off-Limits.

DJI Enterprise's World Heritage 3D contest runs to October 10. It suggests national parks as subjects. In the US, those are the illegal ones.

Haye KestelooAug 25

DJI Avata 360 drone in flight showing its rotating dual-lens 360 camera module

DJI

DJI Offers $10,000 For Your Best Avata 360 Video While Washington Decides Its US Future

DJI's All For Passion Challenge pays up to $10,000 for Avata 360 sports videos through September 30. The drone's US story makes it complicated.

Haye KestelooAug 21

Thermal drone imagery of five elephants glowing orange and purple against dark bush, each framed by a white AI detection box labeled ELEPHANT #01 through #03

DJI

DJI Names 15 Onboard AI Challenge Winners, From Banana Farms to Bridge Cracks

DJI names 15 winners in its Enterprise Drone Onboard AI Challenge 2026, from a Colombian banana farm crop counter to closed-loop traffic inspection in China.

Haye KestelooAug 21

Overhead black-and-white view of a DJI Phantom quadcopter surrounded by folding DJI Mavic drones and other multirotors arranged on a white surface

Amazon

Michigan Becomes National Drone War Lab

Michigan is no longer just talking about drones. It just secured the airspace to prove it. The U.S. Department of Defense has officially designated Michigan’s National All Domain Warfighting Center as a National Range for Deep Uncrewed Aerial Systems training, as reported by FREEP. That is a long title, but the meaning is simple. Michigan…

Rafael SuárezFeb 17

REC Foundation banner for the Aerial Drone Competition hosted in Nevada.

DJI

California JROTC Team Heads to Nevada Drone Battle

Fifty four teams. One competition floor in Reno. And just one squad carrying the Kern County banner, as 23ABC reports. Arvin High School’s five member JROTC drone team is heading to Nevada for the 8th Brigade Aerial Drone Competition, and they are not going as tourists. They are going as contenders. Their instructor, Sgt. John…

Rafael SuárezFeb 13

Education

Students Gear Up for Mescalero Apache Drone Competition

The students at Mescalero Apache Middle and High School are getting ready for their annual aerial drone competition, which takes place this Saturday, December 6, on the reservation near Ruidoso in New Mexico, as reported by Ruidoso News. The event brings together pilots, navigators, teachers and families, and it turns the school gym into a…

Rafael SuárezDec 5

North Carolina

North Carolina’s ‘Drone Audition’ Model Shows How Pentagon Plans To Accelerate Military Innovation Beyond Failed Replicator Program

Based on reporting by Dan Barkin for Business North Carolina A first-of-its-kind drone competition in rural North Carolina is quietly prototyping how America might finally close its innovation gap with Ukraine’s battlefield laboratories—by letting military commanders “audition” new systems at civilian facilities and buy them within months instead of years. Dan Barkin attended and reported…

Haye KestelooNov 1

Drone Competition

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