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  WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration has finalized the first operational rules (PDF) for routine commercial use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or “drones”), opening pathways towards fully integrating UAS into the nation’s airspace. These new regulations work to harness new innovations safely, to spur job growth, advance critical scientific research and save lives.“We are part of a new era in aviation, and the potential for unmanned aircraft will make it safer and easier to do certain jobs, gather information, and deploy disaster relief,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “We look forward to...

BEIJING, -- Chinese online retailer JD.com has begun using drones for deliveries in the countryside of east China's Jiangsu Province.The service around Suqian City, hometown of JD.com's founder Liu Qiangdong, can more than halve the cost of delivery to less than 0.5 yuan (7.6 U.S. cents) per parcel, said Xiao Jun, vice president of JD.com. At a delivery depot in Suqian's Caoji township, two drones are capable of handling 200 parcels a day. The drones can each carry 10 to 15 kg of weight and fly 15 to 20 km at a speed of up to 54 km per hour,...

European airliner maker Airbus has designed, built and flown an entirely 3D printed unmanned air vehicle (UAV) which it has designated Thor. This was reported by Airbus head of emerging technologies & concepts Peter Sander at the Innovation Days 2016 media conference on Monday in Hamburg. Thor is an acronym for Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality."Thor is a test platform for high risk investigations," said Sander. These will be aerodynamic investigations. "We will prove the concept and establish if it works, or not." Different aerodynamic concepts can be tested using a 3D printed UAV which can be designed and...

Would you like a drone with your cocktail? The world's first cafe using the tiny domestic unmanned aircraft as servers has opened in a Dutch university. The pop-up drone cafe will be serving up all weekend as part of celebrations for the "Dream and Dare" festival marking the 60th anniversary of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The 20 students behind the project, who spent nine months developing and building the autonomous drone, aim to show how such small inside craft could become an essential part of modern daily life. "It has potential as a useful tool for human kind. We...

  DJI on Sunday introduced the Matrice 600, its next-generation aerial platform, marking a new era for professional aerial photography, filmmaking and industrial applications. The M600 integrates DJI’s brand-new A3 flight controller onboard and features advanced Lightbridge 2 video-transmission technology that offers high frame rates and HD live-streaming capability at distances up to five kilometers. “The M600 is the most-powerful and easiest-to-use professional platform DJI has ever produced,” said Senior Product Manager Paul Pan. “We’ve pre-programmed all M600 platform data and information into the A3 flight controller, remote and transmission system to minimize setup and get you flying as quickly...