Drone News Roundup: FPV Drone Footage of Hardest Mountain Biking Course in the World, Drone Taxi Flies in NYC, and More!
BY Zacc Dukowitz
23 November 2023Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
This week we’re covering FPV drone footage of mountain biking shot at one of the hardest courses in the world, shot by the Dutch Drone Gods.
We’re also covering Joby’s first test flight of its drone taxi in New York City, a mashup of cinematic FPV drone footage shot around the world, a futuristic piano that uses drones as speakers, and an agreement between the Ghana Navy and Zipline to help recover lost drones.
Now on to the links!
Insane FPV Drone Footage of Hardest Mountain Biking Course in the World
Over the last few years, Red Bull has made some great partnerships with world class FPV drone pilots to capture the extreme sport events it puts on. This video is the latest example of these partnerships. Red Bull teamed up with pilots from the Dutch Drone Gods to shoot mountain biking pro Kade Edwards as he rode the Hardline, a twisting downhill race that goes in and out of the woods and steep slopes of the Dyfi Valley, located in Wales. Known as one of the hardest mountain bike courses in the world, getting a single FPV drone shot of Edwards riding the course was incredibly challenging. Watch the video to see how he pulled it off.
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Joby Makes First Air Taxi Test Flight in NYC
You may have heard that New York City has lifted its drone ban. Now it’s also had its first drone taxi flight. Made to hold one pilot and four passengers, Joby’s eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) air taxi recently took off from a heliport in downtown Manhattan and flew over the East River. During the test, NYC mayor Eric Adams announced plans to have a live vertiport—a small landing and charging pad made just for air taxis—placed in downtown Manhattan in the near future. Joby has partnered with Delta Airlines to reach a larger market with its drone taxis, and has shared plans to begin offering services in New York as early as 2025 (assuming it gets FAA approval). Joby is on a roll—the test flight in NYC took place just a month after the company had a successful first test flight in California.
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FPV Drone Footage from Around the World
This fun video by YouTuber Siam FPV features FPV drone footage captured around the world, letting you look over his shoulder as he travels to far flung locations like Malaysia, French Polynesia, and Vietnam, as well as ones a little closer to home, including Costa Rica and San Francisco. In total, the video features footage shot in nine different countries. The footage was shot on a BNF (Bind-n-Fly) FPV drone from a company called Drone FPV Racer, which was equipped with several different GoPros.
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Piano of the Future Uses Drones as Speakers
Wondering what the surround sound of tomorrow looks like? It might look like this: Using drones equipped with speakers—called speaker drones—to fly around, creating immersive, moving sound. Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano, shown in the video above, was made to marry new technology with tradition, allowing you to “reproduce a natural sound field.” According to its makers, the biggest challenge they’ve faced with the speaker drones is latency. Since normal bluetooth latency is 200ms, which is unusable for a musical performance, the company decided to use a proprietary dedicated communication platform to solve the problem. Of course, the noise of the drones’ props has also been a challenge, but “as quiet drone technology becomes available, they’ll be able to add it to the existing framework.”
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Zipline Signs Agreement with Ghana Navy to Recover Lost Drones
Credit: Zipline
Zipline has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ghana Navy to recover drones and related supplies the company has lost in major rivers in the country. In return, Zipline will help the Ghana Navy “enhance capacity building and gain access to training opportunities.” In the same announcement, the Ghana Navy shared plans to develop a Drone Squadron, which will be used in operations like search and rescue missions. Since launching, Ghana has been one of Zipline’s biggest partners. In 2018, Zipline signed a contract with Ghana to make up to 600 medical drone deliveries a day for four years at a cost of around $12.5 million. Today, Zipline has made over one million deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the country, and continues to operate regularly there.
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