Wingcopter LiDAR, Man Accused of Breaking TFR, Pelican 2, Skyebrowse Interior Update

Welcome to Weekly UAS News Update! We have five stories for you this week. As we hit our 300th week, we’ll cover Wingcopter‘s new LiDAR unit, a Baltimore man facing felonies for flying over NFL games, the PYKA Pelican 2 drone, and Skyebrowse’s new update to improve their interior mapping.

This week marks 300 consecutive weeks of news updates. We haven’t missed a single Friday since I started doing this. While I missed a couple when the team filled in during vacations or illness, I want to say a big thank you for tuning in and making this possible. We get tremendous feedback everywhere we go that you watch and appreciate these updates. I started this to keep my students informed about Drone Industry developments, but it turned out to be much more than that. It has also helped me maintain a good pulse on industry trends.

Growth and Achievements

To share how we’ve grown over the years:

• Over 390,000 students (approaching 400,000 in the next month)
• Over 115,000 Part 107 course participants
• 48 drone courses in our catalog
• Shipped over 50,000 remote drone stickers to the community
• Issued 6,300 FAA Wings credits on the FAA safety website
• 258,000 TRUST certificates issued

We’re moving into a new facility soon, where we’ll begin offering more services, including in-person training.

Drone Industry News

Wingcopter Introduces New LiDAR Unit

At Geo Week, Wingcopter released a LiDAR unit for its Wingcopter 198. According to the press release, the Wingcopter 198 can survey over 37 miles of linear infrastructure in a single flight while carrying a 10-pound payload. The system achieves a point cloud density of 570 points per square meter, with 10mm sensor accuracy and 5mm precision in approximately 42 minutes of flight time. The LiDAR can scan 2,560 acres in a single flight.

Baltimore Man Faces Federal Charges

A Baltimore man was arrested after allegedly flying a drone over M&T Bank Stadium earlier this year. The NFL paused the game in the third quarter when the drone, allegedly belonging to Alex Perez-Suarez, was spotted flying approximately 400 feet over the stadium. The drone allegedly took seven pictures before flying away.

Alex faces three federal charges: flying into restricted airspace, operation of an unregistered drone, and operation of an aircraft without an airman certificate, and willful violation of national defense airspace.

PYKA Announces Pelican 2

PYKA announced the introduction of the Pelican 2 in the United States. This large fixed-wing spray drone is designed for crop dusting. The Pelican 2 features a 300L capacity, hot-swappable batteries, LiDAR, and radar, with a price point of $550,000. According to PYKA, the Pelican is the largest drone authorized to operate in the United States.

Skyebrowse Updates Indoor Mapping

Skyebrowse announced a major update to their indoor mapping processing. According to the press release, the new processing method uses AI to verify that individual rooms have been processed correctly. This verification allows for additional speed, clarity, and accuracy in the model. Skyebrowse offers 3D mapping software that uses video instead of traditional photos for 3D models. Their lowest tier is free, with additional options available for professional needs.

Join us later today for happy hour in the community. The live Q&A is back on schedule Monday, now that I’m back in the office, and we’ll have Post-Flight on Monday in the Premium Community as well.