Drone News Update

• Drone News: DJI Ends Support, Matrice 30 Rescue, Shots Fired at Police Drone, Super Fast FPV Drone!

  Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week. DJI is ending support for some of its Matrice drones and payloads, an DJI Matrice 30 helps rescue a missing elderly man in Oklahoma, a suspect in Missouri reportedly fired shots at a police drone during a chase, and we'll look at a new super fast FPV drone! Let's get to it.First up, DJI has announced that on January 30, 2026, it will officially end all support for six of its legacy enterprise products. This is part of the company's routine product lifecycle management, but it's a big deal for anyone still relying on these platforms. After that date, there will be no more technical support, no official repairs, and no more firmware or compatibility troubleshooting. The products being retired are the Matrice M200 V2, the M210 V2, and the M210 RTK V2. These were and still are the workhorses for many inspection, public safety, and surveying teams. Also on the list are the Zenmuse XT and XT2 thermal cameras, and the Lightbridge 2 transmission system is also being retired. DJI is recommending that users upgrade to newer models to take advantage of improved tech and support.Next up, we have a real-world drones-for-good story! A DJI drone was instrumental in rescuing a 90-year-old man who had been lost for nearly 12 hours in freezing temperatures in Atoka County, Oklahoma. After a massive search involving ground crews and even the National Guard, the Wagoner County Emergency Management team was called in with their drone. Volunteer pilot Eric Lane launched a DJI Matrice 30, and within just fifteen minutes, he spotted a clear heat signature in the woods using the drone's thermal camera.And in our third story this week, an incident in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, highlights both the value and the growing risks of using drones in law enforcement. According to KCTV, police were responding to reports of a man trying to get into locked cars. In an effort to find the person, they launched a surveillance drone, another DJI M30T. The drone quickly located a man walking through a driveway and testing car door handles.When the suspect realized he was being watched from above, he allegedly pulled out a firearm and fired two shots at the drone. Thankfully, the drone was not hit and continued its mission. The drone's live feed allowed officers on the ground to track the suspect as he ran through backyards, eventually leading to his arrest. A K9 unit later recovered a stolen 9mm pistol that the suspect had reportedly dropped. Finally, the FPV speed record has been broken yet again, and this time by a significant margin. The team at Drone Pro Hub has built and flown a custom FPV drone to a verified top speed of 374 miles per hour, or 603.47 kilometers per hour. To put that in perspective, that's nearly half the speed of sound, or Mach 0.49. This new record smashes the one set just a few weeks ago by Luke Maximo Bell's Peregreen 3, which had reached 585 kilometers per hour.The real breakthrough came after analyzing flight data, which revealed that the drone's body was creating too much aerodynamic drag. By redesigning the shape, slimming the nose, and smoothing the body, they managed to cut drag by about 18 percent. That's when they started hitting speeds over 540 kilometers per hour. While a 374-mph drone might not have many practical uses for most of us, the lessons learned about aerodynamics, vibration, and power systems at these speeds could absolutely lead to more stable and efficient drones for everyone. It's a fantastic story of engineering and perseverance.We’ll see you on Post Flight, our Premium community show where we share our uncensored opinions that aren’t always suitable for YouTube! Have a great weekend! https://dronexl.co/2025/11/30/fpv-drone-603-km-h-speed-record/https://dronexl.co/2025/12/02/suspect-shoots-police-drone-lee-summit-chase/https://dronexl.co/2025/12/02/dji-drone-help-find-missing-elderly-man-cold/

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• Drone News: Senators Against Ban, UAS Nexus Syndicate, IFT & Ascend's Partnership, M30T Shot Down

  Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week: some GOP senators are pushing back against a potential DJI ban, UAS Nexus is launching a marketplace to solve the Blue UAS component shortage, Inspired Flight and Ascend Engineering are expanding their partnership to boost software for American-made drones, and an M30T Shoot down in Ohio. Let's get to it.First up, the push to ban DJI in the U.S. is facing some unexpected resistance from within the Republican party. According to a report from Politico, a provision to restrict DJI, which was included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, was left out of the Senate's version. Senators from agricultural and energy states are raising major concerns. Senator John Boozman of Arkansas pointed out, “They are the primary drone maker in the United States at a reasonable price. This technology is being used more and more… That’s the crux of the problem.”This all comes as a critical deadline approaches on December 23rd. Under last year's NDAA, a federal security agency is supposed to determine if DJI poses a national security risk. If no agency conducts that audit by the deadline, DJI automatically gets added to the FCC’s Covered List, which would ban new products from entering the U.S. market. The problem is, no agency has stepped up to actually do the audit. Next up, a Salt Lake City engineering firm called UAS Nexus is launching a new venture to tackle a huge problem: the Blue UAS supply chain. The company just launched the Drone Syndicate Store, which is a curated marketplace for NDAA and Blue UAS-compliant components. This is a big deal because while everyone talks about building American drones, finding all the individual, compliant parts, from motors to radios, is a massive headache for manufacturers. Next, Inspired Flight Technologies, or IFT, is expanding its partnership with a software firm called Ascend Engineering. IFT is a U.S. manufacturer of NDAA-compliant and Blue UAS-listed drones, and this partnership is all about beefing up their software capabilities. Ascend Engineering specializes in UAV software, and they’ve been working with IFT for two years on their Inspired Ground Control, or IGC, platform. IGC is the central hub for mission planning, in-flight management, and payload integration.Together, they’ve already pushed out several updates to the IGC software, improved the NTRIP framework for better connectivity, and added advanced payload features. According to IFT, this partnership accelerates their "software-enabled hardware strategy." This is so important because a drone is more than just its hardware. The software that runs it has to be secure, intuitive, and powerful. By focusing on building out their own software suite with a dedicated partner, IFT is working to create a complete, mission-ready system that is fully made in America. Last up, an M30T was shot down this week in Ohio. While flying, he experienced what he thought was a fly away, and called the police to notify them that the drone was flying away. Shortly after, the police returned his call to say someone reported finding a drone. The pilot met up with the reporting party, who said “I shot it down”. Be sure to check out our Black Friday deals and we’ll see you on Post Flight, our Premium community show where we share our uncensored opinions that aren’t always suitable for YouTube! https://dronexl.co/2025/11/26/gop-senators-break-with-dji-hawks-december-ban/https://www.inspiredflight.com/news/ift-partnership-ascend-engineering.phphttps://dronexl.co/2025/11/20/uas-nexus-drone-syndicate-solve-blue-uas-supply-chaos/#google_vignettehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/commercialdronepilot/permalink/1751858248823888/

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• Drone News: Police Drone Injures Child, Drone Rescues Man in WI, Drone Proposal Lights Up Dallas

  Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week: A UK police drone crash injures a child, a drone helps rescue a missing 85-year-old man in Wisconsin, and a viral drone show proposal lights up the Dallas skyline. Let's get to it.First up, a serious incident out of the United Kingdom, where a police drone crashed and injured a child. According to multiple sources, on August 2nd, police in Kent were responding to an alleged assault in Sheerness. An officer deployed a DJI Matrice 30T, but during the flight, the drone reportedly struck an overhead power line. It then fell and struck a child, causing severe hand injuries that required them to be taken to a hospital for treatment. The confirmation of the crash and injury didn’t occur until a freedom of information request was submitted. There currently aren’t any updates on the status of the child struck by the drone, and while we don’t normally cover stories out of the United States, we wanted to cover this one to remind everyone that safety must come first in any operation. Next up, a drones-for-good story! In Juneau County, Wisconsin, deputies used a drone to find a missing 85-year-old man. The sheriff's office received a call shortly after 5 p.m. about a man who had wandered into a dense wooded area and was possibly injured. Multiple agencies, including the fire department and the Department of Natural Resources, joined the search. As daylight started to fade and temperatures dropped, the situation became more urgent.Shortly before 7 p.m., deputies launched a drone over the search area. Using its camera, the drone team spotted the man stuck in thick mud and unable to free himself. Ground crews could have spent hours searching that difficult terrain on foot, but the drone provided an immediate bird's-eye view. Rescuers were able to reach him quickly and bring him to safety. He was taken to a medical center for evaluation but is expected to be fine. While the report didn't specify the exact drone model, it's likely it was equipped with a thermal camera, which is a game-changer in search and rescue. And finally this week, a story that went viral and shows a much more creative use for drones. A man in Dallas used a massive drone light show to propose to his girlfriend. Cybersecurity engineer Travon Duncan planned the elaborate proposal for his girlfriend, Erica McDowell, who is a content creator. The video, which you’ve probably seen on social media, shows hundreds of drones lighting up the Dallas skyline. They spelled out "Will you marry me?" and created animations of hearts, a ring box, and an infinity symbol.To pull this off, Duncan said he had to get a permit to block off nearby streets, which is a great reminder for all of us that you can't just fly over moving cars, even for a grand romantic gesture. He said the proposal was a "major investment," and I can only imagine! It’s not every day you see someone take over the airspace of a major city for a proposal. The couple’s friends and family were on a rooftop to watch the whole thing unfold. It’s a pretty amazing use of drone show technology, and I have to say, he really raised the bar for proposals everywhere!Be sure to check out our Black Friday deals and we’ll see you on Post Flight, our Premium community show where we share our uncensored opinions that aren’t always suitable for YouTube! Have a great weekend! https://dronexl.co/2025/11/19/police-crashed-dji-drone-into-child/https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2025/11/19/a-dallas-drone-proposalhttps://dronexl.co/2025/11/19/drone-wisconsin-deputies-missing-85-old-man/

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• Drone News: Neo 2 Plus Avata 360 Leak, Police Drone Program Grounded, & New U.S. Spray Drone

  Watch Post Flight on the Community 👉 https://bit.ly/pilot-institute-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week: DJI Releases and Rumors. The Syracuse Police drone program is stalled yet again, and a new spray drone made by an American company!

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• Drone News: New Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, Drone Maker in Lawsuit, New Autel Releases, & Drone Crash Wildfire

  Watch Post Flight on Community 👉 https://bit.ly/pilot-institute-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week: DJI launches the new Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, a Utah drone maker gets an early win in a trade secrets lawsuit, Autel Releases new products, and an experimental drone crash sparks a wildfire in Colorado. Let's get to it.DJI has launched the Zenmuse L3. The L3 boasts a detection range of up to 950 meters, or over 3,100 feet; more than double the 450-meter range of the previous L2 payload. It achieves this with a new 1535nm wavelength LiDAR, and it does it even on objects with just 10% reflectivity. The system also features dual 100-megapixel 4/3 CMOS RGB sensors—a five-fold increase over the L2’s 20-megapixel sensor. And with a 3cm ground sampling distance at 300 meters, that’s 984 feet, you’ll get ultra detailed maps and models.DJI is claiming a vertical accuracy of 3 centimeters at 120 meters of flight altitude and 10 centimeters at 500 meters. The laser beam divergence is just 0.25 milliradians, making the spot size about one-fifth that of the L2, which is perfect for detecting small objects like power lines. It also supports up to 16 returns per laser pulse, a huge jump from the L2's five returns, which will dramatically improve terrain mapping in dense forests. This whole system weighs 1.6 kilograms, or 3.5 pounds, and is compatible with the Matrice 300, 350, and the new 400. A federal judge in Utah has handed an early victory to Vector Defense, a drone company co-founded by George Matus, the former Chief Technology Officer of Red Cat, which owns Teal Drones, filed a lawsuit against Matus and Vector Defense, claiming he stole trade secrets and sabotaged their business before leaving to start his own company. Red Cat was seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Vector from manufacturing drones or competing in the industry for the next year.However, the judge denied the request, stating that Red Cat "failed to provide evidence" to support its claims and that its assertions were merely "speculative." Matus founded Teal Drones while still in high school, sold it to Red Cat in 2021, and then left in 2024 to co-found Vector Defense. Red Cat alleged that Matus used his position to give his new company an unfair head start. Matus countered that Vector's drones, like their single-use FPV "Hammer" drone, don't even compete with Red Cat's products.Autel robotics has quietly released several new products. The Autel Explorer, a small drone/RC car hybrid designed for GPS denied environments indoors, The Evo III with a mechanical shutter, the Evo Pioneer 150 which is a ground robot with a 200kg payload, the Evo Nest 2, a docking solution for the Eco III, and the Skyfend Interceptor. These announcements come with very limited details. None of these products are currently on Autel’s site.An experimental, remotely piloted aircraft with a 6-foot wingspan crashed in a rural area near Calhan, Colorado, sparking an 83-acre wildfire. According to the Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department, the crash itself started the fire. But it was the drone's lithium batteries that "significantly intensified the blaze," making it much harder to fight.https://www.courthousenews.com/utah-drone-maker-takes-early-win-in-former-employers-trade-secrets-theft-claims/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jscap_uas-integrating-infrastructure-ugcPost-7390344113906143232-gpaE?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAAJSd6cBnGyJ-pAI0UP04C1xL-w9OM69WQI&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_linkhttps://dronexl.co/2025/11/04/dji-zenmuse-l3-lidar-doubles-detection-range/https://dronexl.co/2025/11/01/remotely-piloted-aircraft-crash-colorado-wildfire/

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