Latest Drones Headlines

All the headlines from our Drones Topic Page, ordered by recency.

From Confined Spaces to Big Buildings, Drones Take On Riskiest Jobs

Jul 29 2019 // Here’s a job any worker would be happy to pass off to a drone: Imagine crawling down a ladder into the vast darkness of a 20-story-high storage tank filled with toxic chemical fumes to spend hours searching for...

FAA Hit for New Delay in Remote Drone Tracking Program

Jul 18 2019 // The Federal Aviation Administration has again delayed plans to propose new rules requiring the remote identification of drones, according to records and a member of Congress on Wednesday. Congress directed the FAA in 2016...

Alphabet Has High Hopes for Its Drone Traffic Control App OpenSky

Jul 16 2019 // The company that brought you free digital maps and email wants to do the same thing for your drone. Wing LLC, an offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, on Tuesday unveiled a new app it calls OpenSky that it hopes will...

SkyWatch.AI Launches On-Demand Drone Insurance in UK, Underwritten by Chaucer

Jul 15 2019 // SkyWatch.AI, the on-demand, telematics-based insurance platform, has launched in the United Kingdom following last year’s launch in the United States. SkyWatch.AI’s UK policies will be underwritten by specialty...

30% of Disaster Claims Settled After Desk Audit Using Munich Re Remote Tool, Images

Jul 1 2019 // Munich Re had teamed up with a unit of the National Insurance Crime Bureau to offer insurance carriers an analytics tool that can quickly assess property damage after natural catastrophes and speed up claims...

Look, in the Sky. It’s a Balloon. It’s an Aerial Surveillance System.

Jun 7 2019 // An Arizona company developing a new type of high-altitude, long-range surveillance platform just completed a 16-day mission during which massive balloons floated over four western U.S. states, all part of an effort to...

Amazon Reveals Unique Delivery Drone; FAA Grants Limited Testing Approval

Jun 6 2019 // Amazon.com Inc. has unveiled a revolutionary new drone — part helicopter and part science-fiction aircraft — that the company expects to use for test deliveries of toothpaste and other household goods starting...

Florida’s Citizens Joins NICB Disaster Response Services Consortium

Jun 4 2019 // Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida’s insurer of last resort, has joined the Geospatial Intelligence Center (GIC), an insurance industry consortium spearheaded by the National Insurance Crime Bureau...

Opponents of Airport Expansion Plan to Use Drones to Close London’s Heathrow

May 31 2019 // Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion have drawn up plans to use drones to shut London’s Heathrow Airport this summer in a campaign to stop the construction of a third runway at Europe’s busiest airport,...

VOOM Raises $5M to Expand On-Demand Insurance for Episodic Mobility Usage

May 24 2019 // VOOM, the Tel Aviv-based on-demand, telematics-based insurance platform for drones and other specialized mobility services such as e-scooters, announced it has closed a $5 million Series A funding round. The round was led...

Video Game Effort Could Help Regulate Future Drone Traffic

May 20 2019 // By Lindsay Whitehurst Drones ferrying medical supplies, packages and even pizza could one day be crisscrossing the skies above U.S. cities, and a team at the University of Utah is working with regulators to keep that...

Insurer Says Iran’s Guards Likely Facilitated Saudi Tanker Attacks: Reuters

May 17 2019 // Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are “highly likely” to have facilitated attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to a...

Airports Told They Need FAA Approval to Install Drone Defense Measures

May 9 2019 // The Federal Aviation Administration told U.S. airports in a letter released on Wednesday they could not install drone countermeasures without federal consent, warning they could pose an aviation safety risk by interfering...

Starr Adds SkyWatch Drone Insurance to Broker Platform

May 9 2019 // Starr Insurance Companies and SkyWatch Ltd. have expanded the SkyWatch.AI drone insurance program to allow drone operators to purchase insurance from Starr through a SkyWatch.AI link, which will be available on select...

How Drone Use Becomes More Challenging When Deploying Fleets

May 3 2019 // Search and rescue crews are already using drones to locate missing hikers. Farmers are flying them over fields to survey crops. Insurers have integrated drones as a part of their disaster recovery efforts. And delivery...

Senators Push Regulator to Finalize Drone ID System

Apr 30 2019 // Two U.S. senators on Monday urged U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to finalize a long-delayed rule that would require the remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems, or drones. The U.S. Congress tasked the...

Cannons, Networks, Radar, Jammers: The Business of Taking Down Drones

Apr 26 2019 // Just shoot them down? After troublesome drones infiltrated London’s Gatwick airport late last year, disrupting passenger flights and costing potentially millions of pounds in revenue, that was the instinctive...

Alphabet’s Wing Is First Commercial Drone Unit Certified as Airline

Apr 24 2019 // An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual...

Fight Against Floods Enlists Supercomputers, Drones, Sonar

Apr 22 2019 // An arsenal of new technology is being put to the test fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm fields across the central United States. Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep under water are...

How Drones and Aerial Imagery Use Rose to New Heights Post 2018 Catastrophes

Apr 1 2019 // The importance of drones and aerial imagery rose to a new level in the wake of 2018 natural catastrophes as insurers made them an integral part of their disaster recovery procedures, particularly following the hurricanes...