A British construction engineering firm is hopping on the drone train along with several key players in the its industry. British news site Construction Health and Safety reports that Costain will expand its efforts in adapting drone tech for its projects. Citing money and time savings, Costain’s Aerial Solutions Manager …

It seems to be a week for big announcements at DJI, who yesterday revealed the result of a new partnership with photography experts Hasselblad. Today, the Chinese giant has launched its new Zenmuse Z3 aerial camera, the company’s first drone camera with optical zoom. So there’s good news and bad …

Commentary. The United States House and Senate have – finally – agreed upon another short-term fix to the problem of FAA Reauthorization; but the compromise doesn’t go as far as earlier proposals to help the drone industry. The new bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration through September of 2017 is the …

To paraphrase Jaws’ Martin Brody, an Australian rescue organization is “gonna need a bigger drone,” to help save lives along western beaches. Volunteer-operated Surf Life Saving WA, plans to buy large military-grade drones to patrol beaches in Western Australia, providing visitors with early shark warnings and emergency equipment. The not-for-profit …

It’s not often/ever that autonomous drones take the lead in filming sporting events, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow in Berkshire, England. Plastic Playground, a watersports competition running from the 11th to the 17th of July, will be filmed from above by a fleet of AirDog drones, as …

Having purchased a minority stake in the Hasselblad Group, the Swedish photography experts famous for medium format cameras, DJI has now launched a joint offering combining the best that the two companies have to offer. Together they will offer a fully integrated high-end aerial camera-platform combo. The combo will be comprised …

Image DroneDeploy Drone manufacturer DJI and leading commercial drone cloud software platform DroneDeploy announced a new thermal mapping solution yesterday at the Intersolar North America conference.  The announcement was well-placed: a drone thermal mapping solution could dramatically increase the efficiency  – and lower the cost – of the solar panel …

Drone Combat arena at Bay Area Maker Faire The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) is cheering the failure of two anti-drone bills before the California legislature this session. The two bills—A.B. 1820 and S.B. 868—were designed to curtail commercial drone activities and address safety concerns about “weaponized” drones.  But A.B. 1820 was far too …

In the newest example of drones being used to save cute animals, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) plans to use and M&M shooting drone to save the endangered black-footed ferrets. The USFWS proposes to deliver necessary vaccines to a ferret colony in Montana using drones to shoot M&M’s laced with …

Sponsored by DroneDeploy How high to fly, how to detect crop stress and more As we head into July, growers across the Northern Hemisphere are busy monitoring the growth of their crops, applying nutrients, fertilizers and pesticides, and beginning to estimate their yields for the season. More and more of …