Apps & Simulators

Every DroneBlocks app, one place.

Start coding a drone in about thirty seconds. No install, no IT ticket.

The block-coding simulators run in any browser, including a school Chromebook. The desktop tools for drone light shows and FPV racing are below. Everything here is part of one flight path: the code students write in the simulator is the code that flies the drone later.

Nothing to install

Open a tab. Start coding.

Every DroneBlocks simulator is web-native. Students sign in on whatever hardware the school already owns, and teachers skip the district software-approval queue entirely.

The Ground School map: a low-poly island world with challenge markers scattered across it. Ground School · K–5

Ground School Simulator

The no-hardware front door. Real satellite terrain, co-op missions, and block challenges that teach flight and sequencing before a drone is ever in the room.

Browser · included with Enterprise
Launch Ground School
DroneBlocks Simulator V2 environment picker showing the Minimal, Tundra and City worlds. Blocks → Python

DroneBlocks Simulator

Seven environments, from a bare launch pad to a low-poly city, Mars and the Himalayas. Students drag blocks, flip to the Python those blocks generated, and watch the same mission fly either way.

Browser · included with Enterprise
Launch the simulator
Sim to real

DroneBlocks Web App for Crazyflie

Block coding and an integrated simulator in one interface, then connect a Crazyflie and fly the mission you just tested. No install for either half.

Browser · included with Enterprise
Open the web app
One program, two languages

The blocks are the Python.

Nothing is thrown away at the handover to text. A student drags a mission together, hits the Python tab, and reads the exact program they just built. Same mission, same flight, one keystroke apart.

The DroneBlocks block editor: takeoff, fly up 1 m, fly forward 2 m, yaw right 90 degrees, fly forward 2 m, land.
Blocks · how a student starts
The same mission shown as Python: drone.takeoff(), drone.up(1), drone.forward(2), drone.yaw_right(90), drone.forward(2), drone.land().
Python · the same program, translated
Where these fit

The apps are the flight path.

Every simulator above sits on a level of the DroneBlocks curriculum, and every capability stays on as students climb: block coding → Python → ROS 2 → applied research. K–5 is the browser; the aircraft arrives in 6th grade.

You are here
Level 1

Ground School

K–5. Block coding and sim missions in the browser. No drone required.

Level 2 · grade 6+

Hover Lab

Python and indoor flight. Adds DEXI‑3.

Level 3

Flight Deck

ROS 2, C++, computer vision and autonomy. Adds DEXI‑5 and DEXI‑10.

Separate from the climb

Vertical Innovation

Universities, research labs and large corporations pick up DroneBlocks as a toolkit and point it at problems and opportunities of their own. It is not a level a student graduates into — it is what an organization does once the platform is in its hands.

The simulator is not a separate toy environment. From Hover Lab up it runs the same PX4 flight stack the real drone runs, which is why a mission proved in the browser flies unchanged on hardware. Code you test is code you fly. See the full curriculum →

The content

What students actually fly.

Not one demo world on a loop. Every environment is a built lesson with an objective, a scoring rule and a reason to fly it twice.

Aerial view of the Circuit of the Americas racetrack rendered from real satellite terrain.
COTA, from real satellite terrainStudents fly a real Formula 1 circuit, at real scale, on real elevation data.
A rail yard of colored freight cars viewed from above, with inspection markers.
Rail-yard inspectionThe industrial-inspection mission, scaled to a classroom.
A blocky green landscape with a dinosaur and rescue rings to fly through.
Dino Egg RescueCode a route, fly the rings, beat your own time.
Floating grassy islands above a pale sky, connected by a curved path.
Sky IslandsPrecision altitude and spacing, with nowhere to be sloppy.
A village of small red-roofed houses beside a helipad on a green grid.
Levee Up!A co-op build: the class flies it together or not at all.
A gate course on grass with gates labelled G8 at 10 feet and G2 at 8 feet, and a DEXI drone flying between them.
The gate course, modeled 1:1 against the real one
Why the sim matters

Built at the size of the real thing.

The gate course in the simulator is modeled at 1:1 against the physical course, down to gate height in feet. A student who flies it clean in the browser flies it clean in the gym, because they practiced the actual distances rather than a cartoon of them.

That is the whole argument for our simulator over a game: the numbers transfer.

Desktop software

Downloads.

Some programs need software that runs outside the browser. These are the current downloads for the DroneBlocks apps, drone light shows, FPV racing, and Python development.

DroneBlocks

Block coding for the DJI Tello

The original DroneBlocks app: drag-and-drop blocks that fly a DJI Tello over Wi-Fi, with live telemetry. Tello hardware is discontinued, but the app and the curriculum behind it still run, and schools with Tellos in a closet can keep flying them.

iPad / iPhone
DroneBlocksThe tablet build most classrooms fly with.
App Store
Chromebook
DroneBlocksRuns on managed Chromebooks with nothing to install locally.
Chrome Web Store
Android
DroneBlocksPhones and Android tablets.
Google Play
macOS
DroneBlocks DesktopApple Silicon and Intel builds, distributed as a direct download.
Download
Windows
DroneBlocks DesktopInstalls and updates through the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft Store

DroneBlocks Code

Blocks to Python, side by side

The bridge app. Students build a mission in blocks and watch the equivalent Python appear next to it, which is the step that takes a Ground School class into Hover Lab.

macOS
DroneBlocks Code 1.3.1Direct download, unzip and run.
Download
Windows
DroneBlocks Code 1.3.1Direct download, unzip and run.
Download
Android
DroneBlocks CodePhones and Android tablets.
Google Play

Drone Light Show

Show design & playback

The design interface builds and edits formations for your swarm, then uploads the show. Demonstration animations let you fly something on day one while your own show is still in progress.

Windows
Design InterfaceGraphical environment for creating and editing drone formations in real time.
Download
macOS
Design InterfaceThe same design environment, native on macOS.
Mac App Store
Show files
Demonstration AnimationsPre-programmed swarm shows for 10 to 50 drones. Fly a real show before you design your first one.
Get the files

FPV Drone Racing

Simulator & flight control

Students log hundreds of practice laps in the simulator before they ever risk a real airframe, then use Betaflight to tune and flash the drones they build.

Simulator
VelociDroneFast-paced FPV racing with multiplayer and offline modes. Fly the same tracks your team races.
Go to VelociDrone
Win / Mac / Linux
Betaflight ConfiguratorBuild, flash and configure Betaflight on your racing quads.
Download

Python & beyond

Hover Lab and up

When students graduate from blocks to writing their own scripts, they move into an editor and a toolchain. Nothing about the drone side changes.

Win / Mac / Linux
Visual Studio CodeThe editor our Python and ROS 2 lessons are written against.
Download
Community
DroneBlocks ForumsWhere teachers and students troubleshoot code, hardware and lesson plans with us.
Ask a question
Access

What unlocks the apps.

One annual site licence covers the whole school, and every plan starts with a free 14-day trial. No hardware purchase required to teach with the simulators.

Enterprise
$695 /year

The full curriculum library and the browser simulators on this page.

  • 800+ lessons across the curriculum library
  • Ground School, Crazyflie and DroneBlocks simulators
  • Part 107 student course and test prep
  • Unlimited student seats, web-based
  • Site licence with 10 educator logins
Start free trial
Enterprise Pro
$995 /year

Everything in Enterprise, plus the DEXI Simulator that the drone curriculum runs on.

  • Everything in Enterprise
  • The DEXI Simulator: real PX4 and ROS 2, not a physics toy
  • Hover Lab, Flight Deck and Vertical Innovation pathways
  • AVR competition simulator and leaderboard
  • Cloud-hosted, 12 concurrent sim sessions
  • Need more? $495 add-on packs add 6 sessions each
Start free trial
Get started

Try it with a real class
before you spend a dollar.

Fourteen days, full access, no credit card. Run a lesson, see what your students do with it, then talk to us about subscribing for the year.