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Tracing the origins of the multirotor drone, for business and pleasure
We humans have searched for ways to join our avian friends in the air for ages and while some have gone the distance, most of us will settle for the secondhand thrill of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Although full-sized military tests of propeller-laden vertical take off and landing (VTOL) crafts may have underwhelmed, a variety of scaled down multirotor drones have found their niche. Recent improvements in programming, stabilization, power and price have turned these backyard playthings into high-definition eyes in the sky -- for better or worse. This week's Rewind skims the history of these flying machines over the years as they've grown fragile buzzing toys into tools for capturing majestic scenery, inspecting machines and structures, scouting dangerous terrain and occasionally having a little fun.
DraganFlyer X4 UAV puts the camera where it needs to be, even when the floor is lava
It's been a while since we've heard from Draganfly, a name familiar to connoisseurs of unmanned aerial photography. The company's latest outing, the DraganFlyer X4, is a four-rotor UAV that measures only 30.5-inches across and since it ships with your choice of either a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580, Watec WAT-902H2 Ultimate (for shooting in low light), FLIR Photon TAU (infrared), or the Highg Res 480 Board Camera (analog motion video with an 8GB DVR), we imagine that this thing ain't going to be cheap. That said, if you are a well-heeled creepy stalker, southern border vigilante, or even someone with legitimate military / industrial business, there are plenty of features to make it worth a second look, including: computerized stabilization, altitude hold (maintains its position in the air without user input), and an automatic landing feature that kicks in if the control link is lost. But most importantly for the airborne auteur, this guy sports a wireless video downlink that sends the viewfinder signal that can be displayed either on the device's handheld controller or a pair of video goggles, allowing real-time manipulation of zoom, tilt, and shutter settings. Get a closer look at the thing after the break.
