Drone News: SiFly's World Record, New GS-ONE Controller, Freefly Fest 2025, Drug-Loaded Drone Arrest

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week: SiFly sets world record for endurance, Inspired Flight releases a new controller, FreeFly Fest, and a man arrested in Florida for allegedly crashing a drug-loaded drone into someone’s house. First up this week, California-based drone manufacturer SiFly has officially set a new Guinness World Record for flight endurance. Their Q12 prototype quadcopter completed a flight lasting an incredible 3 hours and 11 minutes. This absolutely shatters the previous record for a small, electrically powered multi-rotor drone by almost a full hour. The record-setting flight took place on July 26th in California's Salinas Valley and was certified by an official Guinness adjudicator on-site.Inspired Flight Technologies has just launched a new ground control station, the GS-ONE. This is a rugged, handheld controller aimed squarely at professional operators in commercial, industrial, and government sectors. It's designed to integrate seamlessly with Inspired Flight's own IF800 Tomcat and IF1200 UAS platforms.The GS-ONE features a 7-inch, glove-compatible touchscreen that boasts 2,000 NITs of brightness. That's going to be fantastic for a sunlight-readable experience out in the field. It has an NDAA-compliant 2.4 GHz radio with up to 6 miles of range and hot-swappable batteries that provide up to 5 hours of continuous runtime. The whole thing is housed in an IP55-rated enclosure for durability. On the inside, it's running Android 14 on a Qualcomm QCS6490 processor with 8 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of storage. It's also packed with connectivity, including LTE, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2. We visited FreeFly for their yearly partner’s event in Washington State. It was packed with announcements, including: Alta X Gen 2, A Firmware update for first Gen Alta X, FreeFly Platforms are back on Blue List, Several Astro Max upgrades, Ember toolbox for FreeFly’s high speed cameras, A 1,000,000 lumen spotlight light called the Flying Sun, and even more cool LiDAR and camera tech. Also at the show was a Verizon demo where they flew a FreeFly Astro Max from both Florida and from Alaska using 4 and 5G. Pilot Institute is hosting three separate workshops. On September 2nd, join me, Vic Moss, Amy Wiegand, and Jared Janacek for a deep dive into the regulations, technology, and business strategies that are shaping the future of the drone industry.Then on September 3rd, I’m personally teaching a workshop on how to build your drone business. And on September 4th, Jared will teach you his professional mapping process. Spots for each day are limited and they are filling up. Go to pilotinstitute.com/cuav to see the details and secure your seat.A story that falls squarely into the "what not to do with your drone" category. Out in Lutz, Florida, a 49-year-old man allegedly crashed his drone into a residential home. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the drone was allegedly carrying multiple bags of methamphetamine and fentanyl. In Post Flight, our show where we share more of our opinions, we’ll be talking about these stories along with even more nuggets we’ve found in the Part 108 NPRM and Ag Eagle, who launched a new multispectral camera. We’ll see you on Monday for the live and for Post Flight in the premium community! https://www.commercialuavnews.com/inspired-flight-introduces-new-ground-control-stationhttps://www.fox13news.com/news/video-drone-carrying-drugs-crashes-home-suspect-arrestedhttps://dronelife.com/2025/08/20/siflys-q12-breaks-drone-endurance-barriers/https://freeflysystems.com/