Drone Views of Texas, USA

Dallas, Texas, known as “The Big D,” is the center of the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex, one of the largest  metro areas in the United States. Thanks in part to recent investments in massive stadium complexes, Dallas-For Worth can lay credible claim to being the sports capital of the USA.  AirVuz produced this mini-documentary of the Dallas sports scene, which features aerial views of the impressive Dallas skyline as well as AT&T Stadium, Global Life Park, American Airlines Arena, and more.  

Lone Star Drones put together this nice reel of his best drone footage from Houston, Texas.  Watch it for bird's eye views of the following locations of Greater Houston:  (1) the downtown skyline; (2) Minute Maid Park; (3) the Museum of Natural History; (4) Hermann Park; (5) NRG Stadium and the Astrodome; (6) Rice University; (7) the University of Houston; (8) the NASA Johnson Space Center; (9) the Port of Houston; (10) the San Jacinto Monument; (11) the USS Texas battleship; (12) the UofH's TDECU Stadium.      

Check out this fantastic drone video of Austin, Texas, compliments of brand-new contributor HerronSkyView.  The capital of the Lone Star State, Austin is situated on the banks of the Colorado River, roughly equidistant between San Antonio and Houston.  Once a somewhat sleepy town, in recent decades Austin has become one of America's fastest growing cities, as well as one of its leading tech centers.   The video features some excellent footage of the city itself as well as some of the many outdoor events which take place here.  

For a first upbload to AirVuz, rand new contributor ItsEsaias brings us this excellent drone video of San Antonio, Texas.  San Antonio is the second-largest city of the Lone Star State and the center of its third-largest metropolitan area, after Dallas-Fort Worth and Greater Houston.  A major convention center, it's the oldest city in Texas and in many respects its cultural capital.  The video features footage of the 229 meter (750 ft.) Tower of the Americas, the Marriott Riverside (the city's tallest building), and more.  

Check out the city of El Paso, Texas from the air, compliments of contributor and drone pilot o_a_photography.  Located at the very western tip of the Lone Star State, El Paso is the largest city in the vast (although not precisely defined) area known as West Texas.  It's the sixth largest city in the state and the largest urban area west of San Antonio, which lies about 900 km (550 mi.) away.  El Paso is very much a border city and is tightly connected to its southern neighbor Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Contributor and drone pilot Faben Earth created this excellent bird's eye view of the Sam Houston National Forest near Houston, Texas.  While the Lone Star State isn't normally associated with forests, the fact is that forested areas abound in parts of eastern and southeastern Texas.  The Sam Houston National Forest was established to help protect one of these areas.  It's located about an hour drive north of Houston.  The forest is devoted to mixed use, and it hosts activities ranging from hiking to camping to hunting to boating.  

The vast but loosely defined area known as West Texas has only one city (El Paso) and that is at its extreme western end.  Apart from that, the most recognizable landmarks of this region are the railroads that cross it and the giant wind turbines built to capture the strong winds which sweep it.  Tampa Randy created this amazing drone video, capturing a stretch of the BNSF railway line and a backdrop of gigantic windmills.  Texas has one of the world's largest fleets of wind turbines, most of which are concentrated in the western part of the state.  

Fort Worth is the "sister city" to Dallas, Texas; together, the two cities represent the core of the Dallas Metroplex, the largest metropolitan area in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States (both as of 2018 estimates).  Historically tied to the cattle trade, Fort Worth is actually considerably older than its flashier "twin" city to the east.  In this drone video by Octavio Velazquez Lozano, you'll get a bird's eye view of the city, which was originally established as part of a chain of fortresses built shortly before the Civil War.  

Seen here in this drone video by contributor Lone Star Drones, the USS Texas is one of the USA's most storied warships.  The only surviving US Navy Dreadnought style warship, it was launched on the eve of World War I and saw extensive combat in both World Wars.  Since 1947, she's been a floating museum, docked in the Houston Ship Channel just below the San Jacinto Monument.  The ship has appeared in a number of movies, notably as one of the main filming locations for the 2001 quasi-historical film Pearl Harbor.  

Texas is the USA's biggest source of oil.  While the first oil strike in Texas occurred near Houston in 1901, what really put the state on the map was the discovery of the giant East Texas oilfield in 1930.  The riches from this massive hydrocarbon find in northeast Texas made the town of Kilgore one of the country's wealthiest for a time.   In this video, Light and Drawing uses a drone to give us an aerial look at this small town which hit it big when the famed Daisy Bradford No. 3 well blew in on October 3, 1930.

Check out this stunning drone video from northern Texas, compliments of top contributor ad pilot Feben Earth.  The video was shot at the Caprock Canyons, on the Texas Panhandle near the city of Amarillo.  Most of the canyons are part of  Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway, the third largest of the Texas state parks.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone, the video was undertaken to promote the Love Your Texas Campaign in coordination with Texas State Parks and Wildlife. This video, was a DVOW nominee in May 2019

One of the things which makes Texas amongst the most distinctive states is the fact that it was its own country for almost a decade before being admitted to the Union in 1845.  The Republic of Texas was declared in 1836, shortly before Sam Houston's troops decisively defeated Mexican forces in April, 1836 near San Jacinto.  The great battle is commemorated with the gigantic monument you'll see in this drone video by Lone Star Drones; completed in 1939, it's the world's tallest masonry structure.  

Contributor Patrick_Nye used a drone to create this bird's eye tour of the University of Texas at Austin, the main campus of the UT system and one of the largest in the world.  The campus is visually dominated by its nearly 100 meter (about 300 ft.) Main Building.  Known as The Tower, it was the site of one of the earliest instances of a mass shooting in the USA: in 1966, an ex-marine sniper perched on the observation deck shot 16 bystanders to death and injured dozens more before being killed by police.

AirVuz contributor Dave MG brings us this excellent drone video of South Padre Island, a barrier island which lies on the Gulf of Mexico near the very southern tip of Texas.  Devastated by Hurricane Beulah in 1967, the island rebuilt itself and by the late 70's emerged as one of the top destinations for college students on their spring breaks.  With its protected waters on the western side of the islands, it's become one of the USA's top destinations for watersports such as jetskiing, waterskiing, and kiteboarding.

Lone Star Drones created this nice aerial view of Rice University in Houston, Texas.  Founded in 1912, the private school is generally considered the most prestigious in the Lone Star State.  In the 2020 edition of the US News and World Report college rankings, Rice was tied for #17 with the Ivy League Cornell University in the National Universities ranking.  Located on a campus near Houston's Medical Center neighborhood, Rice's enrollment of just over 7k students is about 55% undergraduate.  

In this video, contributor Light and Drawing takes their trademark flyaway shot to the Texas port city of Galveston.  The city is located on the eastern tip of Galveston Island, which lies in the Gulf of Mexico just south of Houston.  In the 1800's, Galveston was, for a time, the largest city in Texas.  In 1900, the city was virtually destroyed by a monster hurricane which killed as many as 8-10,000 people and is still considered America's deadliest natural disaster.  It's now protected by a gigantic seawall.

Freeport, Texas is situated on the Gulf of Mexico coastline of Texas.  It lies down the coast (southwest of) Galveston, and almost due south of Houston.   A relatively young town, the economy of Freeport is driven largely by the petrochemical industry.  A large Dow plant was built here in the 1930's, and the chemical giant continues to to be the city's largest employer.    In this video, you will get a bird's eye of Quintana Bay, which sits between the town and the Gulf, compliments of contributor Bryce.  

If you think Texas is flat, you'll definitely be surprised by this stunning drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot Lostgirl Adventures.  The video was filmed over an area outside of Big Bend National Park in Brewster County, in the western part of the state.  Part of the Chihuahuan Desert (a vast arid area which includes portions of New Mexico, Arizona, and several Mexican states), the landscapes here bear much closer resemblance to those of southern Utah or Arizona than to the plains of East Texas or the Pandhandle.    

One of the more unusual sights along the USA's famed Route 66 is an unusual sculpture near the town of Amarillo, the main city on the "panhandle" of northern Texas.  It's a "time-series" of all the major Cadillac models up until the time sculpture was constructed, buried nose-first in the sand so as to show the evolution of the brand's famous tailfins.  The project was the work of a 70's era avant-garde modern art group called the Ant Farm.  Check out this amazing site from above in this drone video by Mark59.

Check out this drone video of the port city of Corpus Christi, Texas, compliments of contributor Bumble Bee Productions.  Situated on the Gulf of Mexico, it's the eighth-largest city in Texas as of 2019.  The city's port was the site of a US Civil War battle in 1862, in which Union forces repelled a Confederate naval incursion to bombard the city. The current deep-water port, not technically within the city limits, was built in the 1920's.  Today, it's the home of the fifth-busiest port in the USA..  

Seen here in this video by Lone Star Drones, the Johnson Space Center is the most important center for manned space flight at the USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  Located in the southeastern outskirts of Houston, Texas, its most famous moment was in July, 1969, when Mission Control here directed the Apollo 11 moon landing.  The JSC also been a filming location for a number of films, notably two of the biggest blockbusters of the 1990's: Apollo 13 (1995) and Armageddon (1998). 

Check out these fantastic drone views of Austin, Texas,compliments of AirVuz contributor davetke2002.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Air 2, the video shows off the picturesque skyline of the Lone Star State capital.  The video opens with shots over the Colorado River, which runs through the Texas capital city.  At the 1:07 mark, you'll fly past Block 185, which became Austin's fourth-tallest building when it was completed in mid-2021.  Following that, you'll fly past the Independent, the city's tallest building as of 2022.  

As a first upload to AirVuz, Octavio Velazquez Lozano brings us this excellent aerial tour of Dallas, Texas.  The video opens with a great shot of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which spans the Trinity River, before heading over to the Reunion Tower - the ball-topped observation tower which is the most iconic site in the Big D.  The video also features some excellent bird's eye views of the green-striped Bank of America Plaza (the city's tallest skyscraper), AT&T Stadium in Arlington (home of the Dallas Cowboys), and more.  

In this episode of Droning America, hostess Angie Avestruz heads to the Big D - Dallas, Texas.  She teams up with local TV sports news personality Kaime Stroot to show us the sights and sounds of the great city in northern Texas - by drone.   In addition to the Reunion Tower, the M Line Trolley, and the Deep Elum District (an important arts center), you'll get a bird's eye view of one of the most important spots in American history - Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963.