Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week. The FBI seizes over 600 drones at World Cup venues so far. DJI releases the Matrice 400 parachute, which is really interesting. And Boom Supersonic offers a $100,000 prize for anyone who’s going to build a Mach 1 RC airplane. It’s really cool. Let’s get to it.

FBI Seizes Over 600 Drones at World Cup Venues

First up this week, the FBI has seized more than 600 drones that were flying in restricted airspace around the FIFA World Cup. This is a massive number of confiscations, as you can imagine, and these have been recorded in all 11 host cities since the tournament started on June 11th. Miami is leading the pack right now with 99 seized drones, followed by Atlanta with 77 and Dallas with 63.

Operators caught inside an active World Cup TFR face civil fines up to $75,000, criminal fines up to $100,000, up to a year in prison, and the total loss of their aircraft. At least three men in Texas are already facing federal charges.

As a reminder, flight restrictions surround each stadium with a ring of 3 nautical miles up to 3,000 feet. These are active from three hours before kickoff until three hours after the game is over. There are also 1-nautical-mile rings up to 1,000 feet around fan festivals, and continuous restrictions over team hotels and training camps that run all the way through July 21st, which is upcoming here.

Reportedly, plenty of these violators actually hold Part 107 certificates. As always, please don’t be that guy who ignores the rules. Every confiscated drone here is going to become an exhibit for lawmakers out there pushing for stricter counter-drone legislation, which we’ve seen happen in the past. If you’re flying anywhere in the country right now, make sure you check tfr.faa.gov before you go for your flight. That’s the place where you can find all the information.

DJI Releases M400 Parachute

Next up, DJI has released the AP100 parachute for the Matrice 400. They missed an opportunity here to call it the AP400, maybe.

This is a 935-gram parachute that mounts on the back of the M400 and slows the descent rate below 5 m/s, or 11 mph. This allows the Matrice 400 to be C5 or C6 in Europe under the EASA regulation, and UK5 or UK6 in the United Kingdom. However, the AP100 will not be released in the United States at this time. You can say a big thank you to your favorite lobbyists for this.

The parachute is self-contained, has a 1-hour charge using capacitors, and has a built-in flight termination system. In addition, automatic deployment can be programmed in DJI FlightHub in the event the aircraft breaches a geofence. The parachute itself will broadcast an alarm and flashing lights to assist with locating the aircraft, and also, I think, to tell people on the ground that this thing is coming down.

This is pretty cool tech. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see it in the US at the moment.

Boom Supersonic Offers $100,000 Prize for a Mach 1 RC Airplane

Finally, Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl has announced a $100,000 prize for the first amateur-built RC airplane that exceeds Mach 1, which is fast, although we’re getting pretty close. We’ve talked about these records recently. The prize includes $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in Boom stock.

Scholl posted the challenge after a college student went viral claiming that his 5-kilogram carbon-fiber dorm-built jet drone hit 500 mph. But Mach 1 is a very long way from that. Mach 1 at sea level is roughly 761 mph. For context, the current verified record for a jet-powered RC aircraft is 465 mph.

Hitting Mach 1 means dealing with extreme drag and control issues, and massive regulatory hurdles, of course. Under Part 107 in the US, we’re capped at 100 mph, and the AMA turbine program is capped at 200 mph. A legitimate attempt at the prize would require cleared airspace and a lot of approvals. But it’s pretty awesome to see a major aerospace CEO channel viral engineering talent into a legitimate challenge here for the hobbyist community.

Join the Conversation

The conversation continues on Post Flight, where we talk about all of these stories uncensored in the Premium Community. We’ll see you for the live Q&A on Monday. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you then.

Be sure to subscribe to the Pilot Institute YouTube channel for weekly UAS news updates, and check out more of Greg’s articles on DroneXL.