In North Carolina, PrecisionHawk Inc., a leading provider of drone technology for the enterprise, announced the first Beyond Visual Line of Sight -enabled, multi-rotor drone platform. First to market, the drone incorporates industry-leading technology to automatically identify all cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft within a 10km radius, ensuring airspace de-confliction well before potential confrontation.
“Flying drones over long distances – an imperative for inspecting miles of oil and gas pipeline in remote areas or hundreds of acres of crops – has been all but impossible to date as the FAA requires very high safety standards from drone operators seeking to fly beyond line of sight,” said Michael Chasen, PrecisionHawk CEO.
Companies with big infrastructure investments spread over vast distances could reap huge benefits from BVLOS drone operations. Under PrecisionHawk’s commercial BVLOS waiver, it has identified opportunities to save as much as $180 for every mile of data capture when compared to traditional methods.