Weekly UAS News Update

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week. First, we celebrate six years of drone news. Next, we explore a new NASA drone project. Finally, we discuss some DJI leaks, because no week is complete without them. Let’s dive in.

Six Years of Drone News

Today marks six years of uninterrupted drone news, a significant milestone. A huge thank you to all our viewers for making this possible. We’re thrilled to unveil our brand-new set, developed for this occasion.

Over the past six years, our news update videos have garnered over 3.4 million views. We’ve enrolled more than 132,000 people in our Part 107 course, representing a third of all remote pilots in the country. Additionally, we now have 400,000 students in our system, with 750,000 course enrollments. We’ve issued 275,000 TRUST certificates for recreational pilots, over 15,000 WINGS credits on the FAA website, and created more than 80 courses on pilotinstitute.com. Our exclusive Pilot Institute community now boasts over 80,000 members.

We’re grateful for your support, with 10,000 to 20,000 views weekly on this segment. Your comments, interactions, and mentions at trade shows mean the world. We have more courses and videos planned for the coming months, so stay tuned.

NASA’s Dragonfly Mission

NASA is pushing exploration boundaries with its Dragonfly mission. This car-sized rotorcraft, designed to fly on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is set to launch in 2028 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, arriving at Titan in 2034 after a six-year journey. Dragonfly’s primary target is the Selk Crater, a 50-mile-wide impact site where scientists believe liquid water may have pooled for hundreds or thousands of years, mixing with Titan’s organic compounds.

As principal investigator Zibi Turtle explains, Dragonfly isn’t a mission to detect life but to investigate pre-biology chemistry. Titan, larger than Mercury, has a dense atmosphere 50% thicker than Earth’s, composed mostly of nitrogen and methane. It features rivers, lakes, and seas of liquid methane and ethane, with temperatures dropping to -292°F (-180°C). Dragonfly will autonomously hop across diverse terrain, from organic dunes to water-rich areas like Selk Crater, as part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, with a $3.35 billion budget.

This mission matters to drone pilots because the technology developed for Dragonfly’s extreme environment—dense atmosphere, low gravity, and frigid temperatures—will advance autonomy, navigation, and battery technology. These innovations could eventually enhance our drones, much like the Mars helicopter exceeded expectations.

DJI Leaks and Rumors

According to a DroneXL report, we might see a DJI Mini 5 Pro, Avata 3, Neo 2 FPV drone, and possibly an Osmo Nano. These are rumors without concrete details or specifications, so they remain speculative.

For the Mini 5 Pro, enthusiasts hope DJI will advance the sub-250g category with a 1-inch sensor, lighter obstacle avoidance, and O4 Plus technology. The Mini 5 recently appeared in the FCC database, suggesting a larger battery than the Mini 4 Pro. The Avata 3, building on its predecessor, may feature an upgraded camera for crisper FPV footage, O4 Plus transmission for better range and stability, and improvements in flight duration and durability. The Neo 2 FPV is more mysterious, possibly a specialized FPV offering, but details are scarce. The Osmo Nano could be a compact gimbal for stabilized, on-the-go footage.

While speculative, past rumors have often proven true. We’ll keep you updated as more DJI news emerges, especially since models like the Mavic 4 Pro are currently unavailable in the US.

Post-Flight Highlights

On Postflight this week, we’ll cover additional news, including John Deere acquiring Sentera Drones, the FAA approving Amazon to deliver lithium products, and a DJI M600 used to film the ongoing Kilauea eruption.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for watching! We’ll be back Monday for a live Q&A and next Friday for another news update. See you then.