Washington and the drone industry: legislation, procurement, security reviews, and agency policy beyond the FAA.
Last time we covered the DJI Lito, the entire conversation rested on FCC filings and a single photo of a drone landing leg. The internet had theories. The leg had no comment. Now we have actual images of both drones, and the community has a lot more to argue about. The Images That Change the…
My DJI Mavic Air drone had arrived that day — brand new, still smelling like the factory — and I could not wait another hour. I had to see it fly.
ACSL is actively promoting SAMO, its dual optical-thermal swappable payload for the SOTEN drone, as the Japan-made platform pushes deeper into U.S. public safety and inspection markets. Built around Teledyne FLIR’s Hadron 640R module, SAMO pairs a 64-megapixel visible camera with a 640×512 radiometric Boson thermal sensor — all in an NDAA-compliant, ITAR-free package. Teledyne…
Wing, Alphabet’s drone delivery subsidiary, published a five-point myth-busting campaign on LinkedIn this week, pushing back on the most common misconceptions about commercial drone delivery. The post drew over 100 reactions and arrived the same week Wing sponsored the networking area at XPONENTIAL Europe 2026 in Düsseldorf, putting these arguments in front of European regulators…
DRONERESPONDERS and the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) have scheduled their next Search and Rescue (SAR) Working Group virtual roundtable for May 19, 2026. The session focuses on training — specifically how to become a more efficient small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) SAR pilot — and is open to anyone who works in or cares about…
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 390, the Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) Act, by a unanimous vote on February 24, 2026, sending the bipartisan wildfire drone bill to the Senate. Sponsored by Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA-20) and co-led by Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-4), the legislation directs NASA to expand its existing…
Germany is funding the production of 15,000 Ukrainian-made STRILA interceptor drones for the National Guard of Ukraine, according to an announcement from the German Embassy in Ukraine on March 23. The multimillion-euro agreement — signed in Kyiv in the presence of German Chargé d’Affaires Maximilian Rasch, alongside representatives of the National Guard and Quantum Systems…
Engineers at Rutgers University have designed a solid-state ornithopter, a bird-like flying robot with no motors, no gears, and no mechanical linkages of any kind, and proven in simulation that it can fly. The catch is honest and refreshingly so: the materials needed to build it in the physical world don’t exist yet. The research…
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