High tech wizards from across Texas gathered in Wimberley last Saturday to share what they’ve learned developing high tech, remote controlled aircraft.
“I think you probably would categorise all of us as techno-geeks, because we like the gadgets, we like flying things. We like putting all this together in a cohesive package that will do something really neat.” Gene Robinson said.
These unmanned aircraft aren’t just toys they can help fire-fighters, crime fighters and search and rescue operations. They can be controlled at great distance, using video monitoring devices that show you what the aircraft sees, from high in the sky.
“Its very fun, very useful…we’ve flown many brush fires, we’ve searched for missing persons, we’ve actually recovered eight. We’ve aided the fire department in lots of brush fires as well, they can sit on the ground and view the screen, and if they see a flare up they can direct their troops from looking at the screen from the video feed of the aircraft,” said enthusiast Myron Smoorenburg.
These aircraft have come a long way, cutting their weight down to ounces, while they transmit pictures that are TV quality. The idea today was for these techno-geeks to share their knowledge in a fast moving, high flying endeavour.
“It’s an emerging technology, mainly from the miniaturization of the electronics, that has been a great boon to us as pilots of remotely piloted aircraft because the smaller a piece gets the easier it is to fly.” Smoorenburg said.
Source: KXAN