Facebook's Aquila wasn't the company's only experimental project meant to boost slow mobile internet speeds. According to a Business Insider report, the social network also explored the use of fixed-wing bird-size drones to provide people in remote locations the capability to stream data-intensive content such as videos and photos. The project called Catalina started sometime in 2017 and shut down after Aquila did in mid-2018.

The math is simple. Humans are cutting down 15 billion trees a year and replanting only 9 billion, creating an annual net loss of 6 billion trees. Planting trees by hand is time consuming and expensive, making it difficult to keep up with bulldozers clear-cutting over 40 football fields of trees ever minute. We’ve had impressive efforts, such as India planting 66 million trees in a day, but that was a large-scale event, which required organizing millions of volunteers. It would be difficult to recreate something like that on a regular basis.

The latest drone developments come as more farmers have started using the technology for work on the farm in recent years. Drone specialist from Christchurch-based DJI Ferntech, Adam Kerr, said the uptake in drones for agricultural uses had now made the National Agricultural Fieldays in Hamilton one of the biggest events in the company's calendar.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order reducing the number of civilian deaths from drones that the government must report. Trump signed the order Wednesday, revoking an Obama-era requirement for the director of national intelligence to release an annual report on the number of deaths resulting from US operations in noncombat areas around the world.

Welcome to TradeMoneta Trading Academy! Are you new to trading Forex or looking for improving your trading skills? The Trading Academy is our free online cours

As last month's grounding of flights at Gatwick Airport showed us, drones can cause a lot of problems – and they can even pose a security risk – when they're flown in the wrong places. Engineers with the US Army are developing a countermeasure, in the form of a drone-netting grenade. The experimental 40-mm grenade was invented by Tomasz Blyskal, Richard Fong and LaMar Thompson at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

Fast and efficient, drones are a versatile new tool against invasive species

Most of the mini drones are much reasonable in rates when it comes to buying them.

Hunter seems to be a robotic wingman that flies autonomously side to side with Russian combat jets, with the pilot issuing combat orders to it on the fly. This is not a new concept. The U.S Air Force hinted at the same idea in this video about the future of air combat (starts at the 3:10 mark):

Air pollution has reached hazardous levels in Bangkok, Thailand, leading some officials to attempt an unusual approach: letting drones spray the pollution out of the sky. Earlier in the week, levels of PM2.5—tiny particles 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller that can penetrate deep into the lungs—reached 185 micrograms per cubic meter. Anything above 150 is deemed hazardous for all individuals (50 or below is considered good).

Drones have a fundamental design problem. The kind of drone that can carry large payloads at high speeds over long distances is fundamentally different from the kind of drone that can take off and land from a small area. In very simple terms, for the former, you want fixed wings, and for the latter, you want rotors.

Passerine's fixed-wing drones can take off (and land) using a pair of legs.

An under-development drone powered by a hydrogen fuel cell beat its hour-long flying time target in recent testing, staying aloft for over 70 minutes with a 5 kg payload. Dubbed Project Rachel, the British drone is a collaboration between engineering firm Productiv, UAS videography company BATCAM and fuel cell provider Intelligent Energy, with support from Innovate U.K., a group set up with British government money to stimulate growth by providing grants to business ventures with new ideas.

The Trump administration on Monday proposed rules that would allow drones to ope...

In the past couple of years, drone toys have become more popular in kids than old traditional toys. With their increasing popularity, the companies are

Quadcopters with thermal imagery cameras can help detect vicious mini-mines that often kill or maim children

Drone "hot spots" in Australia are getting sensors to automatically identify the aircraft and their pilots. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) said it would install the equipment at the nation's airports starting next month. The monitors have been planned for some time, but come in the wake of 72 hours of drone-related disruption at the UK's Gatwick airport last week.

It isn’t unreasonable to think of drones as pesky technological nuisances. Our modern digital ecosystem regularly infringes on traditional notions of privacy and bombards our limited attention spans with stimuli. A swarm of drones hovering overhead seems like the physical manifestation of these intrusions and distractions. But we shouldn’t swat them away just yet. Drones still have practical utility and the potential to change industries.

Airport still closed after what police describe as deliberate attempt to disrupt flights

For years tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet and Uber have promised us delivery drones bringing goods to our doorsteps in a matter of minutes. So why are they taking so long to arrive? One word: regulation. If our skies are to become as crowded as our streets, airspace rules need updating to prevent accidents, terrorist attacks, and related problems, such as noise pollution. But that's easier said than done. Here's a rundown of the main issues.