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

First up, this week marks 300 weeks of Drone News… Thanks for tuning in and making this possible! So far we’ve got 390,000 students with over 115,000 in our Part 107 course, 48 drone courses, we’ve shipped over 50,000 stickers, Done FAA WINGs credits, and TRUST Certificates. And this is just the beginning! Soon we’ll be moved into our new building where we’ll be able to start offering even more cool things!Now onto the news! Next up, Wingcopter released LiDAR for its Wingcoper 198. According to the press release at GeoWeek the Wingcopter 198 can survey over 37 miles of linear infrastructure in a single flight, while carrying a 10lb payload. This system can achieve a point cloud density of 570 points per square meter, 10mm sensor accuracy, and 5mm precision. In approximately 42 minute flight, this system can scan 2,560 acres. Pretty cool new tech! Third, a Baltimore man was arrested after allegedly flying a drone over the M&T Bank Stadium earlier this year. The NFL paused the game in the third quarter when a drone, allegedly belonging to Alex Perez Suarez, was spotted flying approximately 400 feet over the stadium.The drone allegedly took 7 pictures before flying away from the stadium. Alex is now facing 3 federal charges for flying in restricted airspace, operation of an unregistered drone, operation of an aircraft without an airman certificate, and willful violation of National Defense Airspace. Please don’t be that guy… Next up, The FAA has authorized the Pyka Pelican 2 to operate in the US! The Pyka is a large, fixed wing spray drone designed for crop dusting.The Pelican 2 has a 300 liter capacity, hot swappable batteries, LiDAR and RADAR, and comes in at $550,000. According to Pyka, the Pelican is the largest drone that has been authorized to operate in the US.Pretty cool, but I’m not sure we’ll be getting our hands on one of these guys any time soon!Next, Skyebrowse announced a major change to indoor map processing.According to the press release, the new processing method uses AI to verify that individual rooms are processed correctly.This verification allows for additional speed, clarity, and accuracy.If you're unfamiliar with Skyebrowse, they're a 3D mapping software that uses video instead of traditional photos to make 3D Models.Their lowest tier plan is free, so if you're interested in 3D modeling, this is a great place to start and make some models!