Drone News Roundup: Kiteboarding Shot by FPV Drone, Mountain Biking in Sedona with the Skydio 2, and More!

This week we’re covering a high-speed video shot by FPV drone of one of the world’s best kiteboarders in Spain.

We’re also covering an FPV drone video of mountain biking in Sedona, the winning photos from the Drone Photo Awards 2021 contest, BlackSwift Technology’s partnership with NASA and others to study an active volcano in Alaska, and Hyundai’s news that it will be rolling out 65 drone taxi airports in partnership with Urban-Air Port.

Now on to the links!

World Class Kiteboarder Shot at High Speeds by FPV Racing Drone

This video is just fun. The kiteboarder featured here is Janek Grzegorzewski, who won first place at the Full Power Tarifa Kite Fest 2021 last month. The video is shot where that contest took place, in Tarifa, Spain, a hot spot for catching big air on kiteboards. According to the video description, Grzegorzewski reached out to FPV drone pilot Cola (his real name is Colas Feuillie) to see if he might want to come to Spain to shoot him—and the rest is history.

SEE MORE EXTREME SPORTS FPV VIDEOS

Mountain Biking in Sedona with the Skydio 2

We were recently in the southwest and we were stunned by the beauty. Sedona was one of our favorite stops, and when we got back home we wanted to see what kind of drone content might be out there highlighting its beauty. There were a lot of amazing videos, but this one caught our eye for the skill of the mountain biking, the quality of the footage shot using Skydio’s follow-me autonomy features, and the impressive survey of the natural beauty in Sedona and the surrounding area. Enjoy!

SEE MORE BEAUTIFUL DRONE VIDEOS

Winning Photos from the 2021 Drone Photo Awards Competition

Photo credit: Terje Kolaas

The winning photos from the Drone Photo Awards 2021 contest were recently announced and, as you’d expect, they are incredible. Winners were announced in nine different categories, spanning topics like Urban, Sport, and Abstract, as well as a Wedding category with some creative uses of the aerial perspective. The photo above won the Photo of the Year—follow the link below to see all the winners and runners-up in each category.

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BlackSwift Technology Partners with NASA, Others to Study Dangerously Active Volcanoes in Alaska

Photo credit: USGS Volcanoes

Drone maker BlackSwift Technology has partnered with NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) to observe and study potentially dangerous volcanoes. The observations are being conducted with BlackSwift’s Swift S2 Fixed Wing drone, which is being flown Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) so researchers can get the aerial data they need. Right now the focus is on the Makushin Volcano, a volcano located on Unalaska Island—a volcano ranked by the USGS as within the highest threat category in its National Volcanic Threat Assessment.

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Hyundai and Urban-Air Port to Build 65 Drone Taxi Airports Worldwide

Photo credit: Urban-Air Port

Last year, Hyundai announced its partnership with Urban-Air Port to explore the creation of infrastructure to support Urban Air Mobility (i.e., taxi drones). Now, just a year later, the two companies have unveiled an ambitious plan to build 65 urban-air ports—that is, airports for taxi drones—throughout the world.

Hyundai has been making bold moves lately. Last week we covered the company’s vision of a hydrogen-powered future, replete with autonomous hydrogen-fueled drones and a fleet of autonomous ground-based vehicles. The news about its planned urban-air ports shows that Hyundai has its sights set not only on disrupting power sources for the vehicles of the future, but also on building new types of vehicles and investing in the infrastructure to support them.

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