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(MundoGeo) – Operational intelligence platform AirData announced Aug. 26 that it has passed 65 million drone flights covering more than 850,000 drones and 470,000 pilots worldwide, with 15 million flights added in the past 15 months.

(HeliHub) – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, has completed a monthlong flight-test campaign in Germany with Singapore’s first indigenously designed, engineered, and built electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

(DroneLife) – As massive wildfires continue to ravage vast areas of the West and Northwestern United States, the problem of unauthorized drones flying in disaster areas continues to hamper aerial firefighting operations.

(AIN) – Loss-of-visual-reference accidents are likely to involve helicopters at more than double the rate of airplanes, according to a series of Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigations recorded from 2000 to 2021. The TSB issued four recommendations as a result of the findings.

Learn more about the 10 operators, manufacturers, and suppliers that became members of VAI last month.

(Officer.com) – BRINC has grown to become the second-largest drone manufacturer in the United States and the world’s largest public safety drone company, reports Officer Magazine.

(msn) – Japan’s aviation authority formally accepted Archer’s type certification application for the OEM’s Midnight electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on Aug. 21, making the California company the fifth manufacturer admitted to a regulatory pipeline that already has more on-the-ground infrastructure than any other international eVTOL market in the world.

Archer has announced a collaboration with sports and entertainment company AEG to develop a vertiport at the 4-million-sq.-ft. sports and entertainment district L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, California. The partnership expands Archer’s planned Los Angeles air taxi network ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics.

(STAT Times) – Airbound has raised $37 million in a Series A funding round, with participation from DoorDash and others, as the company looks to develop aircraft designed to make air transport a lower-cost alternative to conventional ground logistics.

(DroneLife) – As the US government puts the squeeze on foreign drone manufacturers, it is likely to significantly increase costs for drone users in the construction industry, virtually all of whom fly Chinese-made unmanned aerial vehicles as their primary drones of choice, according to a recent survey by Associated Builders and Contractors.