Anyone seen the Sony Aerosense prototype?

aggravated... · Aug 25, 2015

"Sony has unveiled a prototype of a camera drone shaped like an aeroplane, which can take off and land vertically and fly for more than two hours at a maximum speed of 106 miles an hour."

Two hours... 106 mph.... wow. There is a video of it taking off, flying and landing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...ows-off-Aerosense-camera-drone-prototype.html

JonW · Aug 25, 2015

I sure hope it's as unaffordable as it looks. Otherwise, in the hands of average idiots, it will be the vehicle that gets UAVs banned for all of us.

unclejas · Aug 25, 2015

According to the article, this isn't a hobby drone, and based on the specs of 106mph top speed and a flight time of up to 2 hours, I can't imagine a big demand for recreational purposes. Not to mention that LOS would be a major issue.

That thing is ugly too. I'm surprised that Sony allowed their name to be put on it.

Retired2Fly · Aug 25, 2015

JonW said:
I sure hope it's as unaffordable as it looks. Otherwise, in the hands of average idiots, it will be the vehicle that gets UAVs banned for all of us.

Yes it is around $18K with the ground station if I remember correctly from their VC proposal last year. However , that is only a prototype. More realistic is Sony's joint venture with Aerosense to produce commercial drones. They have produced a commercial heavy lifter drone coming out in March that is powered by Qualcomm technologies just like solo. Their offering is directly targeting agriculture, construction, and surveying areas that 3DR has also dabbled into . The Sony system starts around $25K for a single drone/base station and can be expanded up 25 UAVs working in autonomously in collaboration with each other to collect data and transmit it directly to the Internet.

Here is an article published today that references that project. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...offer-commercial-drone-services-starting-2016

erikgraham · Aug 25, 2015

The firefly is a VTOL drone with similar flight time and speed. You can go buy it right now.
http://www.birdseyeview.aero

Like so many drones, it's a 3DR / Ardupilot / PixHawk based platform. If your interested in this kind of thing, the Solo is actually a good starter drone for you. Familiarize yourself with Mission Planner, Ardupilot/copter, Tower, and the various other technologies on the Solo. When your ready, get a firfly6.

Haven't researched the Sony at all, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's based on ardupilot with a flight controller based on the open hardware / PixHawk platform. But I would expect a company like Sony to have made significant changes.

aggravated... · Aug 25, 2015

JonW said:
I sure hope it's as unaffordable as it looks. Otherwise, in the hands of average idiots, it will be the vehicle that gets UAVs banned for all of us.

Thanks for the laugh

Thanks for the additional info and links Retired and Erik

erikgraham · Aug 25, 2015

I guess it should be mentioned that flying fixed wing is a whole different can of worms and definitely requires a lot more experience.

Anyway, a couple Firefly videos:

1264_Solo · Aug 25, 2015

yeah doubt that'll ever be available for just standard consumers.
If it does god helps us all

aggravated... · Aug 25, 2015

erikgraham said:
I guess it should be mentioned that flying fixed wing is a whole different can of worms and definitely requires a lot more experience.

Anyway, a couple Firefly videos:

Nice, thanks Erik.