“The technology is out of Pandora’s box,” said Michael Piasecki, President and Founder of Essington-based Dragonfly Pictures Inc. Working for the military, the Delaware County company has developed several UAS.
The U.S. Army has used the DP-12 Rhino by Dragonfly Pictures Inc. — which runs on gasoline, weighs 405 pounds and measures 6.7 feet long, 4.5 feet tall and 3.3 feet wide — for geolocation and imaging, company President Piasecki said.
DPI is also developing a model geared toward resupplying troops, with 23 cubic feet of storage space that will be able to fit hundreds of pounds of ammunition, food and water.
“You could fit 25 shoeboxes in there,” Piasecki said, ribbing Amazon’s plans for single-package deliveries.
Test flights are planned for the spring, and DPI is also under contract with the Navy to build an electric-powered UAS.
‘iPhones of the sky’
PennDOT spent about $22,000 last year for a remote-controlled helicopter that’s used to obtain images of sinkholes, landslides, rock cuts and other geological formations. It’s been used along U.S. Routes 11 and 15 north of Harrisburg and along Route 33 in the Lehigh Valley, PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said.
The agency purchased the unmanned aircraft, he said, because “it seemed a rather inexpensive and practical way to help us do our job.”
Kirkpatrick said the UAS has been effective so far, and saves the agency money. In the past, a state aircraft would be sent up in such situations. A 2009 flight to check on sinkhole activity in the Lehigh Valley in 2009 cost $2,783, he said. Using the UAS runs about $290 a day in personnel and travel costs.
Like other technology, the range of UAS uses will expand as the machines become more widespread, said Joseph Pawelczyk, who works in business development and as a project engineer at DPI.
“UAS are the iPhones of the sky,” he said.
Source: philly.com