Drone News Roundup: Full Mt. Everest Climbing Route by Mavic 3 Pro, Trump Shooter Used Drone, and More!
BY Zacc Dukowitz
25 July 2024This week we’re covering a video from DJI that follows a climbing route up Mt. Everest with the Mavic 3 Pro.
We’re also covering news that the man who shot former President Trump flew a drone over the site of the rally before the shooting, Disney snagging a Guinness World Record for a drone light show, a video from Zipline showing how its drones can fly safely alongside crewed aircraft using a proprietary UTM system, and news that the Blue UAS designation isn’t permanent.
Now let’s get to those links!
Follow Mt. Everest Climbing Route with the Mavic 3 Pro
DJI has shared a lot of great drone footage from Mt. Everest in the last few years. Recently, we saw the first drone delivery made there with the DJI Flycart 30. And last year DJI put out a video featuring footage shot high above the famous mountain. Shot by YouTuber @liulangCooki, this new Everest drone video from DJI follows the route climbers take up this famous mountain. Starting at Base Camp at an elevation of 3.3 miles, you go through four different camps, ending on the top at 5.5 miles in the sky. If you’re curious about what’s required to go up Mt. Everest, and what it looks like along the way, this footage is a great overview of that epic journey.
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Trump Shooter Used Drone to Fly Over Rally Site Two Hours Before Assassination Attempt
Credit: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally on July 13, used a drone to surveil the site beforehand. The rally took place at the Butler fairgrounds in Prospect, Pennsylvania. Around 4 p.m. the day of the rally—just two hours before the shooting—Crooks flew a drone over the fairgrounds, flying about 200 yards from the stage on which Trump would shortly stand. He was in the air for about 11 minutes, and it seems like the goal of the flight was to identify the best position for him to shoot from. It’s now widely acknowledged that the assassination attempt is one of the greatest failures in security that’s ever taken place under the Secret Service’s watch. This drone flight can be seen as part of that failure, since the Secret Service doesn’t seem to have known about it until some time after the shooting. These days, security at high profile outdoor events must include securing the skies. And that means not just during an event but also beforehand, to try and identify those doing this kind of reconnaissance.
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Disney Earns Guinness World Record for Drone Light Show
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Disneyland Paris recently broke a Guinness World Record for a drone light show for “Largest aerial display of a fictional character formed by multirotors / drones.” The fictional character in question? Mickey Mouse himself. The giant Mickey was created out of an incredible 1,571 drones in a light show put on to celebrate Bastille Day. The light show was produced in collaboration between Disneyland Paris and global drone light show company Dronisos. Disney is no stranger to drone light shows. It uses them regularly at all of its locations, and has been making some of the biggest and best drone light shows in the world for several years now, with shows that continue to push the boundaries of what the medium can do.
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How Zipline Flies Drones Safely Alongside Other Drones and Crewed Aircraft
UTM (Uncrewed Traffic Management) is air traffic control for drones in the sky. It’s not a new concept—companies have been talking about UTM and making UTM systems for years. And yet actual implementation isn’t so common. But Zipline, the drone delivery company that has made by far the most deliveries in the world, is doing it. This short video explains how Zipline safely gets its delivery drones from one place to another, even in crowded airspace. In Zipline’s approach, its drones break up the flight path into small blocks called “volumes,” then request permission to be in that specific section of airspace at a specific time. UTM reserves the drone’s placement in that airspace at a specific time automatically, allowing it to reroute the path of other drones that may conflict with the original drone’s path.
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Blue UAS Designation May Have Renewal Requirements
The Skydio X2D | Credit: Skydio
Trent Emeneker, DIU Blue UAS program manager, recently shared that getting onto the Blue UAS list doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll stay there. According to Emeneker, there are some Blue UAS platforms that have been on the list for around four years without evolving or remaining competitive in the marketplace. To address the need for innovation and staying current, the DIU (Defense Innovation Unit)—the wing of the DOD that oversees the Blue UAS program—is planning to hold a competitive refresh for Blue UAS this year. The Blue UAS list has continued to expand since launching. Recently, it grew to include three new drones—the Skydio X10D, the Anduril Industries Ghost/Ghost X and the Freefly Systems Astro—as well as growing its list of approved drone components from five to 36.
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