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Updated September 29, 2026 at 10:15 PM CDT78 reports

Drone news

New aircraft, FAA rules, public safety, and the business of drone flight.

Current reporting

What else changed

Aircraft, policy, public safety, market access, and commercial operations, with the source record attached.

Final, Policy
Connecticut towns and state agencies can't buy drones from Chinese or Russian companies after September 30. The state's 250-foot infrastructure rule already applies to everyone.Public Act 25-1 bars state agencies, municipalities, their contractors, and state or federal funds from buying small drones made by a covered foreign entity starting October 1, 2026. Since October 1, 2025, the same act has made it a class A misdemeanor for anyone to fly below 250 feet over, or within 100 feet of, a listed critical infrastructure facility without approval.
Developing, Policy
A tourist pleaded guilty to a federal charge for a 12-minute drone flight near Kennedy Space Center. His controller only warned him about an airport.Xiaodong He pleaded guilty on September 18 in federal court in Orlando to violating national defense airspace. He had launched on July 25 from a Canaveral National Seashore parking lot inside restricted area R-2932. The count carries up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, and a December 2025 amendment now makes a second offense a five-year felony.

65 earlier reports

All reports

Site change log
  1. Final, Policy
    Arizona's one-mile drone ban around ticketed events is in force. It reaches commercial flights, not hobby ones, and the schools rule is the reverse.
  2. Final, Market
    The FCC's marketplace rule takes effect October 13. Drone listings on Amazon and eBay will have to carry a real FCC ID.
  3. Developing, Policy
    The FAA now says it hopes to publish Part 108 by the end of the year. The rule is on day 64 at OIRA.
  4. New releases
    Antigravity adds a 4G backup link to the A1. The Cellular Module is due by the end of September, with no price and no country list.
  5. Developing, Public safety
    St. Paul pulled its $200,000 drone grant the week Bellevue approved one and a Boston police drone landed on a car
  6. Developing, Policy
    TSA is lining up closed-door security roundtables for Part 108 operators. Requests to sit in are due October 19.
  7. Concluded, Policy
    Sonoma County settled the ACLU's drone case. Code enforcement now needs a warrant or consent to fly over a home.
  8. Commercial
    Elroy Air flew the first uncrewed cargo flights in the FAA's eVTOL pilot program from a working Louisiana heliport
  9. Concluded, Policy
    The FCC's drone docket closed with 3,847 filings and a brief from a former Solicitor General
  10. Developing, New releases
    MicaSense Altum-PT Pro adds 640 x 512 thermal imaging for drone mapping
  11. Concluded, Market
    The FCC's 26-189 drone comment window closed with 3,847 filings on the record
  12. Developing, Policy
    Part 108 has been at the White House review desk since July 10, past the FAA's own July target
  13. Updated, Market
    The Osmo 360 II cleared the FCC one day before the Covered List action. DJI launched it everywhere but here.
  14. Final, Policy
    Washington's commercial drone fee jumps from $15 to $150 per aircraft in 2027
  15. Updated, New releases
    GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: a 197 g cinema body, but no ready-made drone integration
  16. Developing, Commercial
    SiFly raises $20 million to start Q12 production
  17. Developing, New releases
    BETAFPV beta-tests a 4.60 g P1 HD flight controller for 1S whoops
  18. Final, Policy
    FAA opens BEYOND Phase 2 to add up to eight government drone-testing partners
  19. Final, Commercial
    DOE drone team mapped 6,000 acres after Typhoon Sinlaku in the Northern Mariana Islands
  20. Developing, Public safety
    Military says an Army laser defeated three hostile drones at the southern border
  21. Final, Policy
    FCC creates an Iowa State wireless test zone for rural and precision-agriculture research
  22. Final, Public safety
    Chattanooga launches a two-dock police drone-response program with a public dashboard
  23. Final, Market
    The Army gave AEVEX a $77.8 million Casper contract ceiling. Orders will decide the actual spend.
  24. Final, New releases
    Japan signed a Terra B1 interceptor-drone production contract. Price and quantity remain undisclosed.
  25. Developing, Commercial
    Michigan's auto-parts drone project says it is live. The operating details are still missing.
  26. Developing, Market
    The FCC yanked the HOVERAir Versa's certification three days after launch. A listed FCC ID is no longer proof enough.
  27. Final, Commercial
    FAA clears Wing's Atlanta and Houston plans for up to 118 nests. That is not 118 live sites.
  28. Updated, Commercial
    Amazon names 11 live drone sites. Its 500-city target still needs an address check.
  29. Developing, Market
    A court reopened one piece of DJI's Pentagon case. It does not change what you can buy.
  30. Final, Market
    The 25% drone import tariff is in effect. Thermal aircraft and docks face 100%.
  31. Final, New releases
    DJI support for the Mavic 2 Pro ends August 31. Owners should check the aircraft now.
  32. Concluded, Market
    FCC proposal could stop future U.S. sales of some foreign thermal, LiDAR, spray, docked, and swarm drones
  33. Policy
    FAA proposes $289,215 fine over 15 fertilizer-drone flights
  34. Final, Market
    China put U.S.-bound dual-use drone exports under case-by-case review. It did not ban every consumer drone.
  35. Developing, Commercial
    DoorDash Air launches with Part 135 certification and an aircraft designed in-house
  36. Commercial
    Wing and Walmart are now delivering by drone to more than 50,000 Greater Orlando addresses
  37. Developing, Policy
    Colorado towns are pausing drone delivery hubs, not closing the airspace
  38. Developing, Public safety
    Virginia's AED drone beat the average fire response by 5 minutes and 36 seconds, on a test flight
  39. Commercial
    DroneDeploy's three-hour benchmark for a 1,500-image map depends on what you feed it
  40. Public safety
    A police-drone livestream sat behind one unprotected link
  41. Public safety
    An NYPD drone found six subway surfers, then had to hand them off to a ground team
  42. Developing, Public safety
    One drone grounded every aircraft on Colorado's largest fire, and the operator posted the video
  43. Concluded, Policy
    The new counter-drone authority for local police is narrower than the headlines suggest
  44. Final, Market
    FCC IDs are coming to drone listings, but the real change is inside the aircraft
  45. Public safety
    700+ drones seized at the World Cup, where LAANC approval counted for nothing
  46. Commercial
    Zipline's 2.5 millionth delivery is the wrong number to watch
  47. Commercial
    The Everest cargo record wasn't DJI's most useful result on the mountain
  48. Market
    Two Skydio aircraft cleared Blue UAS, but only in specific configurations
  49. Market
    SkyRover, Specta, Xtra and XAG could face a U.S. import and sales ban
  50. Market
    The FCC wants $25,000 each from eight drone companies that never answered its letters
  51. Public safety
    What BRINC's $125 million actually buys a 911 agency
  52. Commercial
    Wing turned a 40-minute medical drive into a five-minute flight on one specific route
  53. Concluded, Commercial
    Amazon's Chicago plan tops out at 3,000 drone flights a day, and the comment window has closed
  54. Public safety
    That 88% jump in airport drone reports isn't quite what it looks like
  55. Concluded, Public safety
    What pilots were told during the 2026 World Cup no-drone zones
  56. Policy
    The FAA now has a faster enforcement lane for some drone violations
  57. New releases
    DJI put a parachute on the Matrice 400. What does it actually unlock?
  58. Commercial
    1,070 drone docks, 4 million flights: autonomy is leaving pilot-by-pilot scale behind
  59. New releases
    A 90-liter spray tank won't get you through Part 137
  60. Commercial
    Wing and Walmart add seven metros as drone delivery starts behaving like a network
  61. Market
    The FCC gave existing foreign-made drone fleets a firmware lifeline through 2029
  62. New releases
    What the Antigravity A1's 360 capture changes about shooting drone video
  63. Concluded, Policy
    FAA extends comment deadline on proposed drone restrictions near critical sites
  64. Policy
    Part 108 at mid-year: still a proposed rule, but the industry is building ahead of it
  65. Market
    FCC opens a narrow import lane for Chinese 'toy' drones, but not the DJI Neo

Educational, not legal advice. Every report links its sources. Verify current rules with the FAA before you fly and send corrections to corrections@droneauthority.org.