Arlington PD Drone As First Responder program begins with a bang By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill Police departments across the U.S. are initiating Drones as First Responders (DFR) programs for a number of reasons: to search for missing persons, to get a bird’s eye view of an accident scene or to track suspects fleeing […]
The post From Fireworks to First Response: How Arlington PD Built a Smarter Drone Program appeared first on DRONELIFE.
New partnership aims to bring drone delivery to millions of U.S. households in major metro areas Walmart and drone delivery company Wing have announced what they describe as the world’s largest drone delivery expansion. Over the next year, the service will become available at 100 additional Walmart Supercenters across key U.S. metro areas. By this […]
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At the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, the dazzling visuals weren’t just coming from the contestants. They were also powered by 104 flying lights, created via an innovative payload for drones called the Mini Beam.
The Mini Beam payload is designed to mount on Lucie micro drones from Verity Studios — and they made their debut as an official technical supplier to the world’s most-watched live music event.
Mini Beams are much more than just a light show drone. Whereas light show drones create a speck of light in the sky that — when placed in tandem with other drones creates a distinct formation — these lights are different. These Mini Beams from Verity are moving spotlights. For lighting designers, a moving beam light mounted to the drones unlocks a completely new design vocabulary.
After all, lighting designers now have far more creative freedom in how they’re placed relative to the person or other object they’re trying to shine a light on given that the drone can fly practically anywhere.
More than just a return to their homeland stage, Eurovision served as the first live deployment of Verity’s new Mini Beam payload
The Lucie drones were featured in two standout performances: the second interval act of Semi-Final 1, which paid homage to Céline Dion’s 1988 winning song Ne partez pas sans moi, and the Grand Final’s opening act, where Nemo performed last year’s winning number.
“The drones were used as special effects during both the opening and interval acts,” said Steve Maassen, Technical and Creative Lead at Verity, in an exclusive interview with The Drone Girl. “Across the two performances, a total of 104 Lucie Micro drones were used.”
Oh, and by the way, Verity has a long history with Céline Dion. Back in 2019, they were the team behind the drone show on her world tour. Her encore performance, the song “My Heart Will Go On,” was performed to a background of floating drones.
Eurovision’s fast-paced, high-stakes environment made integration a technical feat.
“To be able to perform at Eurovision, live on such an important stage, you need to have an extremely reliable system,” Maassen said. “Integrating our elements into Eurovision’s fast-changing, complex stage setup while delivering the clean visuals required careful planning to integrate drone deployment and recovery seamlessly, without disrupting the flow of the show.”
Despite the complexity, he said the drones performed flawlessly — and autonomously. Once deployed by hand, the Lucie drones accepted a timecoded show control trigger (much like any sort of drone show), flying in sync throughout the performance.
“A single trigger is enough to keep the drones in perfect sync for the entire flight, allowing for frame-accurate lighting cues,” Maassen said. “Each drone follows a pre-programmed path and returns to its landing area at the end of the choreography, where it can be striked.”
Each Mini Beam drone weighs 63 grams (2.2 ounces) and can fly for up to four minutes. See them in action here:
“The Mini Beam enables a fully untethered beam light effect that can move freely in 3D space,” Maassen said. “Designers can place beams close to performers, circle them, or create interactions that aren’t possible with traditional rig, even if there is heavy automation involved. Compared to our standard point light effect, the Mini Beam offers a completely different visual language.”
Lighting designers have responded with enthusiasm.
“They’re excited about taking the classical beam light look to the next level by combining it with untethered flight,” Maassen said. “They’re also excited to use the Mini Beams together with the point lights, which allows them to have a bigger palette of effects.”
For Verity, a Swiss company known for its autonomous drone shows on global tours and even some cruise ships (yes, Verity has permanent installations aboard Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corporation cruise ships), the partnership is yet another keep step for growth.
“Being selected as a technical supplier for Eurovision is a clear validation of the precision and reliability our Lucie drones bring to live environments,” said Raffaello D’Andrea, Verity’s CEO and co-founder.
Verity has also put on masterful state shows, including a drone routine that for a time played out every night on stage for the Broadway Cirque du Soleil show called “Paramour.” The company also powered the drones used in rapper Drake’s 2018 Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour.
And although the Mini Beam has just launched, Verity is already fielding interest.
“It’s only been a few days, but we’ve already seen an uptick in inquiries,” Maassen said.
With its Eurovision debut behind it and industry attention rapidly growing, Verity’s Lucie drones — now with Mini Beam in tow — are poised to take flight in more venues where imagination meets automation.
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The post Verity’s Lucie drones light up Eurovision 2025 with a unique payload that drone pilots need to know about appeared first on The Drone Girl.
When seconds matter, real-time software updates can make or break a mission. That’s why Lockheed Martin teamed up with Red Hat to accelerate the rapid deployment of swarm autonomy technologies, enabling software updates to make unmanned aerial systems smarter at scale in tactical environments. Enhancing Tactics with Swarm Technology Lockheed Martin, using technologies from Red […]
According to information published by the French Army on the social network X on June 2, 2025, an unprecedented field trial is underway involving a mobile micro-factory capable of producing drones directly at the front line. This autonomous system, developed by the Périgueux-based start-up Per Se Systems, allows the production of an FPV (first-person view) […]
A man who lives in Toronto and runs a Hong Kong-based business that exports microelectronic parts is facing charges for allegedly violating Canada’s sanctions against Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. Anton Trofimov, 43, was arrested by the RCMP on May 5 and charged with one count of exporting a restricted good to Russia and […]
– AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. has announced orders for multiple eBee TAC Public Safety units to the Government of Sweden. The order was executed through its strategic partnership with Brigantes, the AgEagle defense distributor for the Nordic region. The eBee TAC Public Safety, designed for tactical mapping and situational awareness, equips users with cutting-edge drone […]
Over the churning waters of the Pacific in 1944, a new kind of warfare was unfolding. Armed with cutting-edge technology, the US Navy unleashed its secret weapon: the Interstate TDR, a fleet of unmanned drones, each a harbinger of destruction. These mechanical birds of prey, laden with explosives, soared towards their target. The first drone […]
Ukrainian defence company VARTA has unveiled the DroneHunter, a drone-mounted kinetic interceptor designed to neutralize small and medium-sized Russian UAVs on the battlefield. Militarnyi’s correspondent reported the details of this Ukrainian innovation during the Drone Summit 2025 held in Riga. At the defence exhibition, the Ukrainian company VARTA presented its anti-drone system featuring a dual […]Walmart is flying high — and this time, it’s not just in Texas. Today, Walmart expands drone delivery services to 100 stores across five states.
The retail giant just announced a major leap forward in drone delivery, becoming the first single, major retailer to scale drone delivery operations across five U.S. states. With its latest partnership with Wing, Walmart will now deliver via drone from 100 store locations across the following five states:
With that, Wing will reach millions of new Walmart customers in major cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa.
If you’ve been following The Drone Girl, you already know Texas has long been the hub of drone delivery. I got to take part in Walmart’s early drone delivery tests in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Watch that experience here:
We’ve also seen Zipline launch its P2 drone site at a Mesquite Walmart — which debuted in early 2025 and offered a “quieter than your neighbor’s Honda Civic” experience.
Today’s news marks a new phase in Walmart’s drone delivery journey — and a big win for drone logistics more broadly. Up until now, drone delivery has largely been in test mode in Texas, which has been dubbed the “Drone Star State.” Texas has the political and social will. It also has excellent climate and geographic for drone delivery (aka mostly flat), and it has large, sprawling suburbs which make for an ideal test ground.
So yes, Texas still plays a critical role: both Wing and Zipline operate there, making it one of the most robust testbeds for unmanned logistics in the country. But the real news here is who else is now getting a piece of the drone pie.
By adding urban hubs like Orlando, Charlotte, and Atlanta to the roster, Walmart is effectively signaling to the rest of the country: drone delivery is no longer just a Texas experiment. It’s going national.
Walmart’s drone fleet, powered by Wing, promises deliveries in 30 minutes or less. The drones can travel up to 6 miles from a launch site — typically a store parking lot outfitted with a landing pad and storage hub — and operate BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight), in compliance with FAA regulations.
Among the top-selling items? According to the team at Wing, it’s a mix of must-haves and delightful conveniences:
Though the expansion news is dropping today, it may take some time for the rollout to actually happen in specific stores. To see if your local store is delivering (and to get notified if and when your home is eligible for deliveries), sign up on Wing’s Walmart website. And really, you should only bother if you live in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando or Tampa.
Many of you most dedicated followers know I’m a huge theme park nerd (I’ll take any excuse to go to Walt Disney World, and I absolutely loved being at the grand opening ceremony featuring a drone show for Epic Universe). Maybe this is my sign to move to Orlando.
In 2021, Walmart began its drone journey, and since then has completed over 150,000 deliveries. But this latest announcement is more than just a bigger number. It’s a strategic shift toward scalable, mainstream, last-mile logistics.
We’ve written before on The Drone Girl about how drone delivery has struggled to move beyond pilot projects. But this expansion — reaching millions of customers across five states — is among the first truly national-scale efforts in the U.S. retail space.
And let’s not forget the infrastructure implications: by launching from existing stores (rather than centralized distribution centers), Walmart is showing that drone delivery can be a plug-and-play addition to traditional retail, rather than an entirely new logistics chain.
While Walmart is flying high, the broader drone delivery landscape is still developing. Competitors like Amazon Prime Air and UPS Flight Forward have made small inroads, but none yet match Walmart’s blend of scale, speed and integration with existing retail ops.
And if you’re wondering whether more states will join the drone delivery club soon — all signs point to yes. As FAA approvals evolve and public acceptance grows, expect Walmart (and others) to continue their skyward climb.
The message is clear: drone delivery isn’t a futuristic gimmick anymore. It’s arriving — one egg carton at a time.
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