For the first time ever, a drone has made a true flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). A hybrid electric drone made for endurance flight from Skyfront successfully completed an almost 4-mile linear inspection of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. This milestone demonstrates the true value of long-range drone operations for inspections of critical infrastructure.

Skyfront has a single issued patent in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles sector that is directed to flight control while taking into account the anticipated electrical power demand. This technology was likely crucial in the inspection mission since it was long and lacked visual ground observers. Given that batteries are a significant barrier to drone flights, it will be interesting to see what other fields will take advantage of these developments.