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FAA will require drones to display registration numbers externally
Drone owners will soon need to display their device's registration numbers on the outside of the craft, the Federal Aviation Administration has declared. The agency, which last month proposed looser restrictions on drone night flights, posted the rule on a Federal Register preview site. The directive is set to take effect on February 23rd -- you'll need to mark the ID number on your drone's body by then.
Newark Airport temporarily halted flights after drone sightings
Just a month after reports of drone activity repeatedly closed Gatwick airport in the UK, Newark Liberty International Airport temporarily halted arrivals on Tuesday. In a tweet after it reopened, Newark said there were reports of drone activity "to the north" earlier. Reuters reports on an FAA statement saying that two drones were sighted at about 3,500 feet above Teterboro Airport, which along with Newark is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In the UK, EasyJet said that the Gatwick closings grounded 1,000 flights, caused 400 flight cancellations and cost it 15 million pounds in passenger compensation, calling the incident a "wake up call" for the industry. Gatwick and Heathrow purchased anti-drone systems after incidents, although police still have not identified anyone behind them after arresting and releasing two people.
UK police arrest two over Gatwick airport drones
Drones flying around London's busy Gatwick airport have disrupted air travel since Wednesday evening, but now the Sussex Police Department has announced two arrests connected to the incidents. The airport reopened for service Friday morning, but the Guardian reports that another drone sighting shut down flights for about an hour around 5 PM. Police Superintendent James Collis said the arrests occurred around 10 PM (local time) Friday. There are no further details on who the police nabbed or what's behind their "criminal use of drones" but the police are remaining on site and asking the public to call in if they have any information.
Drones cause holiday chaos at one of London's busiest airports (updated)
Drones spotted over the UK's second-busiest airport have halted flights since Wednesday evening (December 19th), heavily disrupting the holiday travel of tens of thousands of passengers. Flights at London's Gatwick airport couldn't take off or land, and airport authorities said that 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were affected yesterday. Operations briefly resumed at around 3 AM, then were halted about an hour later when the drone was spotted again. The airport finally reopened this morning, though the Gawick airport authority has advised travelers to check their flight's status before traveling.
NYPD police officers will start using drones
The New York Police Department announced today that it has launched a new drone program. The department says it will use its collection of drones -- 14 in all -- for search and rescue missions, crime scene documentation, hazmat incidents, large events like concerts and hostage situations. "As the largest municipal police department in the United States, the NYPD must always be willing to leverage the benefits of new and always-improving technology," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement. "Our new [Unmanned Aircraft System] program is part of this evolution -- it enables our highly-trained cops to be even more responsive to the people we serve, and to carry out the NYPD's critical work in ways that are more effective, efficient and safe for everyone."
These tiny drones can lift 40 times their own weight
If you ask these tiny drones, "Do you even lift, bro?" you will get a resounding yes. Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and Stanford University have developed a line of small flying bots that can move objects that are 40 times their weight.
Disney’s spray-painting drone could end the need for scaffolding
We've seen some pretty interesting work come out of Disney Research in the past, like techniques for digitally recreating teeth, makeup-projecting lamps, a group AR experience and a stick-like robot that can perform backflips. One of its latest projects is PaintCopter -- a drone that can autonomously spray paint both flat and 3D surfaces. Disney Research says the goal is to be able to paint large surfaces without the need for scaffolding and ladders.
Solar-powered aircraft stays aloft for record-breaking 25 days
While Facebook and Google recently pulled the plug on their solar-powered internet drones, another company with a lot more experience is having success with the idea. Airbus announced that its solar-powered Zephyr S HAPS (high altitude pseudo-satellite) flew for 25 straight days, setting a time aloft record for any airplane, ever. It shattered the previous record of 14 days, marked by a previous prototype Zephyr aircraft.
French secret service intercepts drone near president’s summer home
This week, the French secret service (Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République, or GSPR) took down a drone that was flying in the airspace above Fort de Brégançon. This spot on the French Riviera is well known as the summer home of the French presidents. It's unclear whether President Emmanuel Macron and his wife were in residence at the time.
Alphabet's Loon and Wing are now more than just 'projects'
Google parent company Alphabet's internet-delivering balloon service and its drone delivery project have graduated from X programs to full-fledged businesses at Alphabet. From here, Alphabet says that Loon will maintain its mission of working with carriers worldwide to deliver internet to underserved areas. Wing will similarly continue building out its network of delivery UAVs, not to mention its air-traffic control system for the unmanned aircraft.
Facebook pulls the plug on its Aquila internet drone
You'll want to say goodbye to dreams of Facebook-made internet drones. The company will stop designing and manufacturing its own aircraft, and is closing the relevant facility in the British town of Bridgwater. According to Facebook, it's not necessary when "leading companies" in aerospace have been designing their own high-altitude flying machines. Instead, the social network can focus on developing the high-altitude internet access systems and work with partners to both develop the connectivity itself and put it in the skies. This includes policies (such as a proposal for more spectrum at a 2019 conference) and rule-making committees.
The latest cover of 'Time' is composed of 958 Intel drones
Intel's latest drone trick is on the cover of Time. Err, it is the cover of Time. Allow me to explain. The magazine's most recent issue features special reports on UAVs, and rather than, say, featuring a photo of Intel's drone team on the cover, as PetaPixel notes, the publication's iconic red border and logo is made up of 958 of Intel's light-show drones themselves.
University of Michigan launches outdoor lab for autonomous drones
The University of Michigan's autonomous vehicle testing grounds are no longer limited to earthbound machines. It just opened M-Air, a 9,600 square foot, four-story facility designed for testing autonomous aircraft outdoors. The complex lets researchers test drones in realistic lighting and wind conditions, but includes netting that prevents wayward drones from smacking into people or other aircraft. The addition enables the kind of experiments that would previously have required permission to fly outside.
Amazon dreams up a drone that will understand your hand signals
Amazon was just issued a patent for a UAV that can interpret gesture and vocal commands, a device that could in theory be used to deliver packages. First spotted by GeekWire, the patent describes a drone-like device outfitted with various sensors, cameras and other equipment that could recognize gestures such as a person waving it towards them or someone shooing it away. In some very entertaining illustrations, the patent shows the UAV approaching a human who's waving at it wildly.
Ford proposes remote drone-tracking system for the FAA
This week's FAA drone symposium had an unlikely panelist: Ford. The automaker has been working with the agency to figure out how to track UAVs since last year, but unlike dronemaker DJI's proposal to force airborne craft to broadcast their ID and location over radio, the car company's solution is more Lo-Fi. Ford wants drones to use their anti-collision lights to flash their ID number in code that would be readable by, of course, a proprietary app.
The Skydio R1 might be the smartest consumer drone in the sky
Autonomous features in commercially available drones are nothing new. Heck, I'm old enough to remember when DJI Phantoms didn't even offer follow-along technology. Shorter version: Most every drone worth its rotors possesses some level of autonomy. But then there's Skydio's R1, which ratchets things up a notch. Or two.
Louisville wants a fleet of drones to survey areas after shootings
Earlier this week, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky told reporters that he wants the city to field a fleet of drones that automatically survey areas after guns are fired. The city would detect firearm discharges using its existing ShotSpotter system, WDRB reported, and immediately send the UAVs to the scene, potentially before emergency responders are even called. But this isn't coming out of nowhere: Louisville could just be the first of over 300 cities that have applied to a federal program that provides funding for local governments that are trying to start their own drone programs.
DJI's Mavic Air drone may have improved 4K video
DJI is supposed to be unveiling a new drone on Jan. 23rd, but the cat might already be out of the bag. Kanzhaji has posted photos and details of the Mavic Air, a foldable drone that would reportedly slot neatly between the diminutive Spark and the existing foldable drone, the Mavic Pro. It wouldn't last as long as the Pro (certainly not the Platinum edition) with a 21-minute flight time, but it might actually best its higher-end ancestor in a few areas. You'd get 60FPS 4K video recording instead of the Pro's 30FPS, an additional backward-proximity sensor and 32-megapixel spherical photos.
After Math: First!
It was a week of firsts for the tech industry. Facebook finally got around to adding its first African American board member (because it's not like it's already 2018 or anything), a lifeguard drone made its first Hasselhoffian beach rescue, Ferrari announced that it is indeed working on its first electric supercar, and Kodak took a break from slapping its brand on cryptocurrency mining rigs to release the first footage from its upcoming hybrid Super 8 camera. Numbers, because how else will you put entrants in order?
Lockheed's 'Son of Blackbird' spy plane might already be here
The Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird is one of the most recognizable aircraft designs in history. Few other planes have captured the public's attention and imagination in quite the same way as the SR-71 has since it was declassified in 1990 (nearly 30 years after it entered service). And though we're now two decades on from the Blackbird's retirement, America's need for supersonic, high-altitude surveillance has not diminished.