TECH INSPIRED BY NIKOLA TESLA CHARGES DRONES IN MID-AIR. Kelsey D. Atherton. October 21, 2016

Students at Imperial College London have made the world’s first wireless flying drone. They were inspired by Nikola Teslas work and built off his tesla coils design. These students took a regular consumer drone and removed the battery from it. They replaced it with a copper ring that they attached to the electronics of the air craft. When the drone was in a magnetic field it would draw energy from it. This technology is still not applicable to any real uses yet because of the narrow gap between the drone and the charger. But the students believe that as it gets further in development they could have drones that charge over power lines or a military vehicle that can charge drones above it so they don’t have to land and have a battery swop.

NASA Testing BVLOS Flight in Reno Miriam Mcnabb. OCTOBER 24, 2016

NASA has been testing drones beyond visual line of sight. These drones are flown without a pilot. It’s not legal under the current laws in America. With NASA’s partnership with the FAA are going to create a traffic control system, that allows the beginning of integration of drones into the NAS. This is the beginning of how drones are going to be integrated into are air space. NASA has been working on this system sense 2012 when the FAA Modernization and Reform Act. NASA hopes that by 2018 flights over people are going to be tested. By 2019 at which point recommendations would be made for implementations. This may seem slow but the white house wants to support the commercial drone industry and promise to reform some of the drone laws.

Airblock is a modular drone that transforms into a hovercraft Ben popper. OCTOBER 19, 2016

The Airblock is a new modular drone is being made by a startup called Makeblock a Shenzhen-based Robotic compony. The hole drone snaps together like magic. Unlike most drones if you crash this one it is going to be intact. This is because of the brilliant design that all the small styrofoam pieces fall apart when the small drone crashes. Each piece of the drone is its own entity. From its six propellers to its battery block. This drone is for consumers that just want an entry level drone. It’s may not have a camera or any fancy features but its ingenious module design is a nice refresh in the drone market.