DJI’s Phantom 3 Last year, the FAA rushed to implement the recreational drone registration system, saying that holiday drone sales could reach 1 million units in 2015.  Reports of actual holiday sales vary – with some analysts sticking to the 1 million number and others estimating that sales were closer …

Today marks the first anniversary of the FAA’s drone registration program, and the FAA is calling the program an “unqualified success.”  But are these numbers really as impressive as they sound? The FAA introduced drone registration for drones weighing more than .55 pounds a year ago, following a collaborative process …

Dronifi’s software-as-a-service for drone-based business service providers offers unique features, but can it compete with its well-funded rivals? THE FACTS: With U.S. Part 107 UAS pilot certifications growing (now at 23,000), the commercial drone industry is rapidly changing from a product-focused industry to a service-based one. Dronifi, a four-year-old California …

It’s the season for delivery services to think hard about efficiencies.  Amazon announced their first successful drone delivery last week; this fall the USPS published the results of a public opinion survey on drone delivery.  But it looks like France may be the first to implement  mail delivery by drone. An …

Last year at this time, I reflected back on the news and trends of the commercial drone markets of 2015 and wrote about the mixed state of affairs in the U.S.  Back then we saw only 2,500 Section 333 grants for commercial activity, and the press’s narrative that ‘drones are …

By Gary Bembridge from London, UK (Monacobreen Glacier Calving, Svalbard, Arctic) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012  had many provisions relating to drones – some of them widely affecting the drone industry and others more specific in nature.  One of the latter …

Standard photography drones are expected to make record sales over the festive period. But we thought it would be a good idea to look ahead at what the industry might have to offer in the years to come. So, apart from your regular UAVs for aerial photography, what are five …

In addition to opening up lucrative skies across numerous industries, the Drone Revolution provides visual artists a vibrant new canvas to share their vision with the world. As such, photography contests, galleries and film festivals have taken flight giving aerial artists both artistic and fiscal satisfaction. Many aerial film festivals …

The annual tidal wave of technology developments is forming. Companies are prepping for CES 2017 in January. Drone technology will be in the mix as evidenced by a release from XDynamics, a Hong Kong firm, that has introduced Evolve, a consumer drone completed with a dual-screen remote controller. The dual …

Sky-Futures cloud-based drone inspection visualization and reporting software squarely targets the asset inspection sector, but will it be broadly adopted? THE FACTS: No one questions whether the founders of Sky-Futures know what they are doing.  When it comes to drone inspections they have “been there, done that.”  You can read …