Flying drones is the safest form of aviation there is, claims DJI, based on an analysis of public data on flight hours and reported incidents. In the past year alone, millions of flying hours were made with recreational drones, resulting in zero deaths. DJI, therefore, believes that the regulations should not be made much stricter.
An older drone pilot who was looking for his unmanned aircraft somehow fell down a Mississippi River bluff in Minneapolis, MN. Luckily a teenager heard his shouts for help and came to the man’s rescue.
According to an internal memo, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision not to buy more drones with Chinese parts has made it more difficult to fight wildfires. The memo exposes one consequence of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese tech, which includes Chinese-made drone parts.
The Pentagon is forming a new task force to investigate UFO sightings that have been witnessed by U.S. military aircraft, say, two defense officials. However, others believe that these sightings might be drones possibly operated by earthly adversaries trying to gather intelligence instead of extraterrestrials.
Here’s an interesting article about how to hide from surveillance drones. In case, you’re wondering why this might be useful information, just think of the Department of Homeland Security drone that monitored BLM protesters or the Draganfly drone that measured people’s temperatures and looked for other coronavirus symptoms.
This morning, the NY Times featured an article on their home page that is titled, “Popular Chinese-made drone is found to have security weakness. Of course, the article is specifically about DJI drones that are found to have data security issues.
Drones have risen to the COVID-19 challenge as social distancing disrupted the delivery of supplies. During the coronavirus pandemic, unmanned aircraft have been used with varying degrees of success to disperse crowds, communicate social distancing messages, monitor people’s temperatures, spray public spaces with disinfectants and to deliver medical supplies. #dronesforgood
People keep finding new use cases for drones. Over the last few years, we have seen drone pilots collect whale snot and herd sheep with help from unmanned aircraft. But, did you know that drones are now also used to guide cocaine-laden narco jets to illegal airstrips in a Guatemalan rainforest? Yes, apparently that’s a thing now as well.
Turkey reportedly has plans to buy more than 500 quadcopter drones of the Kargu type that could be used as suicide drones, could be operated in swarms, and could be ready for export.
On Thursday there will be a webinar hosted by NetChoice that will cover drone data security. Among other people, DJI’s vice president of policy and legal affairs, Brendan Schulman will be participating in this ‘Frank Conversation About Drone Data Security.’ Register today for the webinar on Thursday, June 11, 2020, at 1 p.m. EDT.
The Customs and Border Protection Predator B drone that appeared over Minneapolis last Friday to provide live video to law enforcement on the ground was called back, said a senior spokesperson.
Back in the thirties, Radioplane developed a number of model airplanes that were radio-controlled and served as aerial targets for antiaircraft gunnery training by the U.S. Army Air Corps, writes Peter Suciu. Later on, they would form the basis for the first reconnaissance drones.
DJI has used drones successfully in China to help disinfect public areas up to 50 times faster than could be done manually. Now Patrick Walsh, CEO of EagleHawk in Syracuse, NY wants to kill the coronavirus with drones in sporting arenas here in the U.S.
This terrifying drone video shows how five sharks are feeding on a school of fish only feet away from surfers at Bondi Beach. This is not the first video that we have seen that show how surfers and swimmers can be totally unaware of these predators swimming so nearby. The top-down view provided by drones allow us to see straight through to water and spot these massive and potentially dangerous sharks.
In an official announcement from Autel Robotics, the company informs us that the Autel EVO II will be available in the week of April 20th, 2020. You will be able to buy the drone at official Autel resellers, such as Amazon. Or, as some of you did already, you can buy it online directly from Autel.
Police around the world have started to use drones to warn the general public of the highly contagious Coronavirus. We have seen examples already in China, France, Spain, the U.S. and now also in Western Australia. The drones are mostly used to enforce social distancing and to warn people to stay inside.
The Minnesota Interagency Fire Center and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources ask people not to use their drones near wildfires. In Minnesota, the months of April and May are typically the most active times for such fires, say experts.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced that the second of two Hudson County men charged with conspiring to use drones to smuggle contraband into Fort Dix has surrendered to authorities. The contraband that was intercepted from these drone drug drops, includes more than 160 cell phones, 150 SIM cards, 74 cell phone batteries and chargers, steroids, 35 syringes, two metal saw blades, and marijuana.
