Category Archives: VTOL

FAA to Consider Exemptions for Commercial UAS Movie and TV Production

HollywoodThe U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration has announced that seven aerial photo and video production companies have asked for regulatory exemptions that would allow the film and television industry to use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with FAA approval for the first time.

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Luxury Hotel Delivers Champagne by QuadCopter

champersA luxury hotel is taking Champagne delivery to a whole new level with a soaring bottle service by quadcopter.The Mansion at Casa Madrona in California unleashed their state-of-the-art octo-copter earlier this month to deliver the residents precious bubbly. The service is specifically for guests staying in the hotel’s most luxurious suite – where nights start at $10,000. Continue reading

Skycatch Raises $3M from Investors Including Google for UAS for Energy Industry

SkycatchThe egg white UAS lifted off from its ground station at a hospital construction site here, hovered for an instant, then zoomed off, sounding like a five-pound bee as it buzzed around the cranes towering over the six-acre project. Capable of carrying a high-resolution camera and other sensors, the quadcopter, a helicopter with four rotors that resembles a spaceship from a 1950s science fiction movie, was flying in a demonstration of its ability to serve a potentially lucrative new market for UAS: the energy industry. Continue reading

UAS Mapping Trees in Finland

Sharper ShapeMapping the trees in Finland’s forests sounds like a Herculean task – there are 30 billion of them, making it Europe’s most densely wooded nation. But for one start-up that’s just the warm-up act to its plan to use laser-equipped drones to shake up industry at large. From package deliveries to nuclear power plant examinations, the Helsinki-based Sharper Shape can see limitless possibilities for its system. Continue reading