In this week's drone news; DraganFly has released a drone with a 66lb payload and a 55-minute endurance, Wing is creating a fleet of larger drones to carry different items, DJI is lobbying against the American Security Drone Act, a man was caught trying to fly contraband into a prison, and one year of Pilot Institute's Free stickers!

DraganFly has introduced a cargo drone with a payload of 66lbs and a range of 19 miles.

The heavy lift drone uses LTE for fully autonomous flights with an up to 55-minute endurance.

In addition to package delivery, the heavy lift can be equipped with a new long-range LIDAR unit to map large areas.

https://dronexl.co/2022/07/13/draganfly-heavy-lift-cargo-drone/

On the topic of larger drones, Alphabet’s Wing is expanding the size of its drones.

“Just as the ideal vehicle for carrying a ton of gravel would be a dump truck rather than a sedan, the ideal aircraft to carry a bottle of medication is not the same as the best one to deliver a gallon of milk, and neither is suited to deliver a refrigerator,” Wing CEO Adam Woodworth.

https://dronexl.co/2022/07/19/contraband-heavy-duty-drone-texas-prison/

DJI has hired lobbying firms in an attempt to persuade congress not to back the American Security Drone Act.

This would prohibit the government from buying drones made by Chinese firms or other companies that could be a national security risk

DJI is already on the Entity list and on the Chinese Military-industrial complex list.

https://archive.ph/Ijb8J

A Texas man was arrested in Houston after trying to use a heavy lift drone to drop a bag of contraband into a prison.

The contraband included wire cutters, money, smartphones, and tobacco.

Charges agains the man included two counts of improperly flying and aircraft, each carrying up to 3 years in prison.

https://dronexl.co/2022/07/19/contraband-heavy-duty-drone-texas-prison/