Drone News Roundup: Amazing Single Take Parkour Drone Video, Demolition by Night, and More!

This week we’re covering an amazing single-shot parkour video that features multiple athletes jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

We’re also covering a strangely serene drone video of a demolition shot at night, a cinewhoop tour of a weird and beautiful museum, the ways that drones equipped with LiDAR can help detect pipes in danger of bursting before they actually burst, and the FAA’s reporting system for illegal and/or dangerous drone operations.

Now let’s get to those links!

Single Take Parkour Drone Video with Multiple Athletes

We love the raw energy in this one-shot parkour drone video, featuring four different athletes heaving in and out of the frame as they jump from one rooftop to another. Even though it’s only about 30 seconds long this is one of our favorite parkour videos right now. The absence of music highlights the effort it takes to do these movements, driving up the intensity as we listen to the athletes breathe harder and harder. This video was a nominee for the Single Take category at the Boston Drone Film Festival this year—click the link below to see the other entries in that category.

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Demolition at Night by Drone

This drone video of demolition work being done at night in Malta is a great example of the power that aerial footage can have. The eerie lighting and quiet piano music makes the footage of cranes slowly destroying a building seem peaceful, somehow—and also otherworldly. The demolition featured in the video is of the Bim Factory, which is being destroyed to make way for The Marsa Junction Project, a huge EU-funded effort to improve roads and other infrastructure in Malta. We found this video on a site called Demolition News, which has a ton of drone videos of demolitions—follow the link below to see the original post on their site.

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Cinewhoop Video of the Bizarre, Beautiful City Museum

The cinewhoop has taken this year by storm, and this video is a great example of the form. The video takes us on what feels like a guided tour through the City Museum in St. Louis, MO, which was created by the artist Bob Cassilly. Starting in the early ’90s, Cassilly worked to convert a 10-story, 600,000 square foot warehouse that previously housed a shoe company into the magical place you see in the video, with the goal of creating a “city within a city.” He had a team of artists, including welders, painters, and sculptors, that helped him do this—watch the video to see what they created.

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LiDAR Drones Help Identify Pipes in Danger of Bursting

Photo credit: University of Newcastle

This is a new one for us—researchers at the University of Newcastle are using drones to help predict which areas, and even which specific pipes, are in danger of water loss due to corrosion. They’re doing this by using LiDAR-equipped drones to get accurate assessments of the conditions on the ground around the pipes, so they can then predict where problems might arise. According to Associate Professor In-Young, who is helping lead the project, the aerial LiDAR data allows researchers to “accurately see where the lower lying areas are and, where land is not covered by buildings or concrete, we can also tell how wet the ground is.” This research could help prolong the life of aging water infrastructure and prevent future disruptions in water service.

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FAA Reporting System for Dangerous Drone Activity

The FAA recently opened the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) to reports on drones. The ASRS has been around for years. It’s a place where pilots can report on safety concerns they have, described by the FAA as a “voluntary, confidential, non-punitive, safety reporting system that receives safety reports from pilots, air traffic controllers, dispatchers, cabin crew, maintenance technicians, and now UAS operators.” If you have safety concerns related to drone operations that you want to report, follow the link below to do so.

VISIT THE  ASRS

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