The popularity of non-military drones has skyrocketed in recent years. It is now possible to get your hands on an easy-to-fly drone with an HD camera for less than $300 and it is only going to get more affordable. One thing is sure, that drones are here to stay, but what can we do with … Read more
DJI introduced the Spreading Wings S900 earlier this week, a model that professional photographers have been looking forward to. The S900 is intended to combine the high power features of the S1000, with the portability of the S800. DJI claims that the S900 features a flight time of 18 minutes with a payload of 6.8kg, … Read more
Team Black Sheep, best known for their drone videos across the world, are releasing the first ever racing drone of its kind, the TBS Gemini drone. UPDATE Mar 2015: The TBS Gemini is for sale HERE – buy this racing drone now before they run out of stock! It comes with 2 different shells, replacement propellers and … Read more
So apparently a large number of college and university professors have sent a letter to the FAA complaining about the ban on the commercial use of drones. Whilst hobbyists are allowed to fly drones up to 400ft high, as we explained before, any commercial use, including their use in research is prohibited. The professors claim … Read more
A hexacopter drone that was probably custom built for ‘deliveries’ has crashed in the fence of a South Carolina maximum security prison before actually making it inside. The drone was carrying contraband such as marijuana, cellphones and cigarettes. The authorities believe two outside people to be involved. One of them, thought to be the drone … Read more
Here’s another pretty cool use of drones in industrial settings – OpenSky Drones, a new company starting up in Florida is going to offer its drone services to companies such as architects, engineers and government agencies including fast responders. Using drones puts no one’s life at risk when conducting risky activities such as propane gas … Read more
The Cargo UAS Drone has been launched on Kickstarter not long ago and has already surpassed its £35,000 goal. It’s now got only 4 more days to go until the delivery drone building project can be considered as funded. This company is quite impressive in that they have been working on delivery drones since 2004 … Read more
A quadcopter drone flown by an amateur flyer found an elderly man with Alzheimer’s in a bean field only 20 minutes after joining the search effort.
BBC News reports that 82 year old Mr DeVenecia, who has Alzheimer’s went missing on July 16th from his residence in the city of Fitchburg, CO. Large search teams including police, search dogs, helicopters and other volunteers engaged in the 5 day search effort.
NBC Miami reported a near miss between a helicopter and a hexacopter drone earlier in the week. The report which can be found here featured interviews with the drone and the helicopter pilot, both of whom own an FAA license.
Browsing the internet I have come across Sky Drone, a new company that started up last year after being funded on Indiegogo. And what do they make? You guessed it, drones, but not just any old flying device. They claim to have come up with the world’s cheapest drone capable of transmitting live video to a mobile phone over the 3G or 4G network.
What’s a far cry from the deadly machines the military pioneered, today’s civilian drones such as this one don’t carry missiles, but surveillance cameras. Skydrone, the one year old start up based in Hong Kong has created one of the world’s cheapest cameras for drones.
The quadcopter drone set up consists of a camera, modem mounted on top of the drone and the controller board which does all the work mounted on top.