It was around sunset on Easter Sunday, April 16, when Brad Jones took his DJI Inspire 2 out for a flight in front of his home. Jones hoped, as he does on most nights, to capture some of the forested and hilly scenery in the environs of his hometown, Oliver Springs, Tennessee—about 30 miles west of Knoxville. “I flew down over my aunt’s house, and I heard a gunshot within the first three to four minutes of flight,” Jones told Ars. “So I sped up and flew back towards my house.”

Short film by Paul Trillo - In one continuous shot, a man has a public meltdown in the middle of a residential cul-de-sac. The neighbors gather together and watch, debating how best to deal with unstable man. What unfolds is a constantly shifting scenario in which community's cultish public shaming is taken to extreme heights. Shot in a single take using a drone.

At this point, if you don’t know who Oliver C is, chances are pretty good that you’ve been living under a rock. Over the past few months, this guy has won the heart of the Internet with his awe-inspiring, fully functional, and totally badass replicas of popular Star Wars ships — and he’s showing no signs of stopping. Following up his previously shown Millennium Falcon, Tie Fighter, and Imperial Destroyer drones, he’s back with a ship we’ve all been waiting for: The iconic X-Wing fighter.

Earlier this week, General David Perkins, the commander of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) spoke at the Association of the US Army’s Global Force symposium, where he discussed the threats that the US military would begin to face in the coming years. One notable example is how a US ally recently shot down a $200 consumer drone with a Patriot Missile.

A British company called Windhorse Aerospace thinks it’s figured out the key to solving humanitarian crises: edible drones. Its unmanned Pouncer prototype that’s currently in the works will have a wingspan of nine feet and be constructed of various “foodstuff” to drop supplies and then itself into territories in need of aid. This drone could be built of honeycomb or compressed vegetables, with salami serving as the landing gear, according to a new interview in the Financial Times. Why salami? Because it’s “physically strong with good tensile strength and flexibility.” This is for real.

As drones become more accessible, Channel 9 has learned that more smugglers are using them to sneak contraband into prisons. Inmates are able to receive phones to order hits on witnesses or rivals, and to keep running criminal organizations. They can also get weapons from the drones. Even a small drone is fairly noisy, so it may seem far-fetched that criminals can pull this off without guards finding out. But smugglers and inmates know the lay of the land and they’re finding that window of opportunity when no one's watching.

This track-and-jam system could neutralize terrorist attacks. But it's against US law.

Maintenance workers in China's Xiangyang city used a flame-throwing drone to remove a net that had severely affected electricity supply after becoming entangled in a power line, according to Chinese state media.

A group of tigers is called an “ambush” for a reason. When these massive cats get together and decide to catch some prey, they’re simply vicious. A quadcopter learned this the hard way at a Siberian tiger enclosure in China’s Heilongjiang Province. Not only did the beasts swipe the drone out of the sky—they took a few bites of the poor gadget.

A French military program adapts the ancient art of falconry to the threats of unmanned flight.

Middle East city eyes Chinese-made drones to fly people across its skies.

A drone that can pollinate flowers may one day work side by side with bees to improve crop yields. About three-quarters of global crop species, from apples to almonds, rely on pollination by bees and other insects. But pesticides, land clearing and climate change have caused declines in many of these creatures, creating problems for farmers. Pollination is needed for reproduction in flowering plants. Male flower parts, or stamens, produce pollen that fertilises female parts, known as pistils, to make seeds. In self-pollinating flowers, the stamen sheds pollen directly onto the pistil.

With bee populations tumbling, an autonomous drone just 4 centimetres wide could help pollinate crops by flying from flower to flower

It wasn't quite what it seemed.

Once the job is done, the tiny gliders are designed to disappear. By Tim Wright.

Oceanographers dropped mini underwater drones off the coast of California and found they congregated like plankton. By Vishnu Varma.

I pick mine up next Friday!

Lily, the autonomous camera drone that sold a whopping $34 million in preorders, has announced it is shutting down. In an email sent to customers about an hour ago, the startup said that it was unable to raise an additional round of funding which would have allowed it to start production of the drone. So it announced instead that it will be winding down the company, and offering an automatic refund to all preorder customers.