Sacrificed Drone Saves Lives, Autel Evo Lite Enterprise, & Drones Inspect KLM

Welcome to Weekly UAS News Update

We have three stories for you this week:

1. A man sacrifices his drone to save lost people
2. The Autel EVO Lite Enterprise new drone
3. A drone that inspects KLM aircraft

Let’s get to it!

Man Sacrifices Drone to Save Lost People

First up this week, seven people were rescued after their boat started sinking in a lake in Utah. The police were notified of the sinking boat but could not locate the occupants. While staging the rescue crew at the marina, a local man who was flying his drone for fun overheard an offer to help. His name is Stefan Cisu, and he assisted in the search, locating the sinking boat and sending its location to the officials.

The seven people were eventually rescued successfully, and the boat was towed back to the marina. It’s unclear how far the drone was flown away by the operator or what kind of drone he was flying, but in the meantime, he did not have enough battery to return the drone home, and it eventually landed in the lake.

Great job, Stefan! Sorry to hear about your drone. If you don’t have your Part 107 already, please reach out to contact @ pilotinstitute.com, and we’ll set you up with an account for free.

Autel EVO Lite Enterprise Series Released

Next up, Autel has released the EVO Lite Enterprise series. The new series weighs 866 grams and includes thermal and visual payloads. The Lite Enterprise has a 40-minute flight time, 4K video, 12 km of range, and a thermal sensor on the thermal version.

There are two versions: the Lite Enterprise and the Lite Thermal. The thermal version has a 640×512 resolution thermal camera, a 16x digital zoom, and a temperature range of 0°C to 550°C.

At this stage, we don’t have any pricing, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear more. It’s good to hear that Autel is still releasing new platforms, even if it’s based on an older one that was actually a great drone for recreational pilots.

Drones to Inspect KLM Aircraft

Last up is a new partnership between Dutch Drone Delta and KLM that will use drones to inspect KLM aircraft. The new program will use the DJI Matrice aircraft with AI-enabled software to perform inspections and report damage to the pilot and other users.

The images of the operation appear to show either a Matrice 300 or 350 using a P1 payload, a LiDAR, and other payloads inspecting an Airbus A330. This is a pretty cool use of drones. We’ve heard of a couple of other companies doing this as well, but it’s going to benefit the air carriers by reducing inspection downtime.

All good uses of drones this week! You have a great week, and we will see you on Monday for the live show.