Drones threatening commercial a/c?
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Those are some nice meat slicers! They need bladeguards for that thing. Think small child, dog, whatever, running in their way...
Also, 4 motors+props? What about redundancy? 5 Seems a much smarter number, easy to keep flying with 4. Keeping flying with 3 seems hard, although it is theoretically possible. One of them would have to be reversible though...
Also, 4 motors+props? What about redundancy? 5 Seems a much smarter number, easy to keep flying with 4. Keeping flying with 3 seems hard, although it is theoretically possible. One of them would have to be reversible though...
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When it was announced at CES at the beginning of the year, the company was apparently saying that it was already fully functional, and that it would be commercially available later in the year, but YMMV (especially with a battery life of 23min and a max speed of 60mph
).
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https://www.ted.com/talks/raffaello_...ge=en#t-348220
This should allay concerns about controllability with failures. The control method when down to two props would not be much fun for a pax though....
This should allay concerns about controllability with failures. The control method when down to two props would not be much fun for a pax though....
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Drone brings Dubai Airport to a halt for an hour - Khaleej Times
My apologies if this has been posted elsewhere already.
I thought that it would fit this thread well.
My apologies if this has been posted elsewhere already.
I thought that it would fit this thread well.
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Europe’s Emergency Workers Turn to Drones to Save Lives
The “drone school” builds on Europe’s worldwide lead in giving public groups and companies relatively free rein to experiment with unmanned aircraft. If everything goes as planned, the project’s backers hope government agencies in Europe and farther afield can piggyback on the experiences, helping to transform drones from recreational toys to lifesaving tools.
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FAA Issues Commercial Drone Rules
The Federal Aviation Administration’s new commercial drone rules allow a broad range of businesses to use drones under 55 pounds, but with several restrictions: The drones must be operated by a pilot who has passed a written test and is at least 16 years old. And drones can be flown only below 400 feet, during the day and at least five miles away from airports.
Unique drone approval in UK
Permissions - BB Stratus Aerial Imagery
We are the ONLY UK company able to fly in built up areas as close as 10 meters distance from the public and property not under our control and to a height of 600ft above ground level. Oh, and we can do this both day and night!
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Drone sales soaring this Christmas, capping a record year for the industry
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It's interesting to do some ball park numbers on how many delivery drones we could see flying around. Lets take Amazon alone.. Some reports say that Amazon warehouses are processing a few 10's of orders per second. Other reports suggest that 80-90% of these are below 5kg so could potentially be delivered by a drone. That means we could be looking at say 10-20 drone flights per second from their warehouses. That's a potential of about 1,300,000 flights per day per warehouse. That's a staggering number and probably wrong but it is based on todays figures, allows nothing for growth and is just Amazons potential let alone other companies.
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Drone delivery
This is a much misunderstood business IMHO. Unless there are unpublicised developments in range and duration of current technology the use of drones for deliveries can only be for a tiny minority of all orders. Currently the duration of multi rotors is measured in minutes not hours, and their speed in tens of knots. Admittedly fixed wing planes last much longer and go faster, but they require decent sized fields to take off and land. Not many customers will be willing to have their goods delivered by parachute. Landing and taking of again at the point of delivery poses obvious dangers which would be unacceptable to commerce and regulators alike.
In order for decent sized payloads to be carried the vehicle needs to be correspondingly larger, and much more expensive. Currently such aircraft are limited by law to a ceiling of 400ft agl in most jurisdictions where they are likely to be used. The temptation posed by large fairly slow noisy machines to amateur marksmen with shotguns is obvious. The likely attrition from this and other causes would render insurance against loss costly.
I do not expect any serious exploitation of unmanned aerial delivery systems commercially for a very long time. If ever. As a means of securing cheap publicity for Amazon and others they seem to be a sure fire winner.
In order for decent sized payloads to be carried the vehicle needs to be correspondingly larger, and much more expensive. Currently such aircraft are limited by law to a ceiling of 400ft agl in most jurisdictions where they are likely to be used. The temptation posed by large fairly slow noisy machines to amateur marksmen with shotguns is obvious. The likely attrition from this and other causes would render insurance against loss costly.
I do not expect any serious exploitation of unmanned aerial delivery systems commercially for a very long time. If ever. As a means of securing cheap publicity for Amazon and others they seem to be a sure fire winner.
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From DHLs press release they did their tests with a VTOL drone with a swivel wing design, straight flight was basically the same as a fixed wing one.
Doesn't look exactly small either. However, i do not think that commercial operators are the main danger as they want to continue using them, it is private users that simply do not know about anything and just want to try to get cool videos or pictures with their new toy. And some of those toys can be quite heavy too.
Doesn't look exactly small either. However, i do not think that commercial operators are the main danger as they want to continue using them, it is private users that simply do not know about anything and just want to try to get cool videos or pictures with their new toy. And some of those toys can be quite heavy too.
"No use for deliveries outside fairly densely populated areas."
Launched from and recovered to van, to deliver from blacktop road to rural property on poor quality track, might be possible.
Launched from and recovered to van, to deliver from blacktop road to rural property on poor quality track, might be possible.
Just appeared on the BBC website
Amazon files patent for flying warehouse
Amazon files patent for flying warehouse - BBC News
excerpts:
Amazon has filed a patent for massive flying warehouses equipped with fleets of drones that deliver goods to key locations.
Carried by an airship, the warehouses would visit places Amazon expects demand for certain goods to boom.
It says one use could be near sporting events or festivals where they would sell food or souvenirs to spectators.
The patent also envisages a series of support vehicles that would be used to restock the flying structures
Also, it said, the drones descending from the AFCs - which would cruise and hover at altitudes up to 45,000ft (14,000m) - would use almost no power as they glided down to make deliveries.
Amazon files patent for flying warehouse
Amazon files patent for flying warehouse - BBC News
excerpts:
Amazon has filed a patent for massive flying warehouses equipped with fleets of drones that deliver goods to key locations.
Carried by an airship, the warehouses would visit places Amazon expects demand for certain goods to boom.
It says one use could be near sporting events or festivals where they would sell food or souvenirs to spectators.
The patent also envisages a series of support vehicles that would be used to restock the flying structures
Also, it said, the drones descending from the AFCs - which would cruise and hover at altitudes up to 45,000ft (14,000m) - would use almost no power as they glided down to make deliveries.
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