You guys seen this?

[Finless]

http://www.draganfly.com/

I bet it's BUCKS though when they dont give a price on the web site and you have to ask for a quote!

Bob

[BaiJazz]

I remember reading about it in the news. They are made for "Big Brother" govs. and hobby spies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456623/Flying-saucer-police-spy-camera-takes-skies.html

[Tonystott]

$15k plus, what a joke when you see the quadcopter thread on RCG...

[AZ ChopperCam]

wow! $15K that's insane. For that price it better come with at least two "L" brackets!

[Griffo]

Yes the going rate for L brackets appears to be pretty steep at the moment. All that engineering know how must really draw on the resources.

At 15k maybe they'll throw in... GASP.. a "U" bracket.

[cbergen]

Damitall guys, Now I need a new keyboard....!! Cleaning it is NOT going to help...

[HeliCSR]

Yeah I talked to the guy, 15K all right, but 22K with the camera and other stuff.

And its ugly, well compared to helicopters. Looks like spy-copter.

I had a dream like 10 years ago, at the beach with some condos around, this thing flew down and was visually checking out a party, look just like it, and it was the police.

[erbrou]

Yes the going rate for L brackets appears to be pretty steep at the moment. All that engineering know how must really draw on the resources.

At 15k maybe they'll throw in... GASP.. a "U" bracket.

:lol:

[chris24g]

Looks like it may be the ideal ship for spectator venues due to the small rotors and light weight. I don't want to think what would happen if a 25 lb AP ship went down into a crowd. 20k doesn't seem so expensive when compared to medical bills and lawsuits.

[Griffo]

For crowds I think I'd still prefer a $5,000 blimp.

I'd say this design was more for military / surveillance applications where fast deployment would be an advantage.

[aballen]

you guys should check out diydrones.com

there are several uav platforms under 1k, though they usually target planes. the newest arduino based ones are targeting under $100

I believe jordi has a cheap heli platform working, and there is also a blimpduino.

new ones to keep an eye on are adrupilot, and ardupilot pro, the first platform should run under $100 and is totally open source

adrupilot pro will include it own thermopiles for sensing the horizon, and will control everything, while the ardupilot will use an fma copilot for stabiliation.

very cool stuff, for heli platforms, I think the software is easier without ccpm, using a single servo for pitch just makes the software easier.

here are some cool videos of autonomous helis doing 3d at stanford univ... cool stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JL04JJjocc