Dallara said:
But haven't all of Yamaha's previous industrial helicopters simply been remote control units?
The one with Northrop-Grumman is autonomous - truly pilotless.
Dallara
~
No.
The early versions were around in the 1980s and I know the sprayers have been using pre-programmed autonomous routes for some time. There are LOTS of these in Japan and they use them like any other tool or piece of equipment. Just by number in use, the potential military applications, and how good the Japanese are with computerized control systems, I'm sure they've developed all sorts of advanced mission capabilities. When I was near Fukushima last year we talked about how these had (have?) a survey route to monitor the leakage of radioactive water.
Just as a small example of how common these soon will be in the US and the potential profit, there are legal and contractual requirements for regular inspection of the pipes and power lines that we all see daily and take for granted. Once the FAA gives the OK, the economics of UAVs is going to make existing helicopter-based inspections go the way of buggy whips.
My read on the Northrop Grumman tie is that the US companies will develop a unique set of control and mission avionics oriented toward Government applications.
