Draganfly News

An Australian company named White Knight Unmanned Aerial Systems is the first operation in the Canberra area to get approval to fly unmanned aerial systems (UAS) commercially.

The mother-and-son operation received approval through the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) after an involved process that included undertaking a week-long flight training session with the manufacturer of the UAS, Draganfly Innovations Inc.

White Knight Unmanned Aerial Systems has received one of only 39 commercial licenses from CASA to use Unmanned Aerial Systems in Australia.

Read more:
Canberra Times
sUAS News

Draganflyer X4-ES

The Draganflyer X4-ES UAS is still making waves after locating an unconscious driver who wandered away from his vehicle after a single vehicle rollover in May 2013.

The National Geographic article titled “5 Surprising Drone Uses” reports the story of how the RCMP using the Draganflyer X4-ES became the first known instance where a UAS has aided in saving a life.

It may seem “surprising” to some, but not to the UAS Industry. The value and importance of using a Draganflyer X4-ES for emergency services has been underrated by many and this amazing news story just goes to show how the UAS is an essential part of any public safety agency’s toolbox.

The Draganflyer X4-ES is now more portable and requires less time to deploy than ever, making it the best choice of UAS on the market today.

Read the full article at National Geographic

Draganflyer X4-ES

The recent use of the Draganflyer X4-ES in a life saving mission in rural Saskatchewan has given the Draganflyer systems a lot of press recently.

In CNN’s article, titled “Drones: The future of disaster response”, the story explains how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police utilized the X4-ES platform with FLIR camera to locate an unconscious driver after a single vehicle roll-over. The 25 year-old-man was found 2 miles from the accident scene by the Draganflyer in less than 30 minutes after 2 hours of searching with a conventional helicopter had turned up no trace of the man.

The CNN article describes how Unmanned Vehicles could have been utilized for search and rescue after the recent massive tornado in Oklahoma, and how the advancements of this technology will be the future of disaster response.

Read the Article

The Draganflyer X4-ES Ultra Portable UAV quadrotor helicopter ushers in a new standard for compactness, with quick release rotors, folding landing gear, and a gyro stabilized two axis camera mount. It also features return to home, stare point, and vision based and navigation based points of interest.

May 28, 2013 – UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) able to carry high quality cameras have, until today, required prohibitively large transport cases. This has been changed by the release of Draganfly Innovations’ new Draganflyer X4-ES Ultra Portable Quadrotor UAV.

Featuring new quick release patent pending tool-less removable rotors, new folding landing gear, and a new sleek molded carbon fiber, light weight, two axis stabilized camera mount. The new features add to the existing folding frame, resulting in a folded size, which is only a fraction of the unfolded width.

The Draganflyer X4-ES Ultra Portable sets a new standard for compactness. It is quick to deploy, requiring no tools. This enables true grab-and-go functionality. The quick release rotors simply twist and release. Rotors are keyed to ensure installation is always correct. The quick release landing gear legs simply tug partially out of a retention slot and pivot to lie in place under the arms. The stabilized two axis camera mount is removable from the center of the Draganflyer X4-ES Ultra Portable and can be swapped for other dedicated mount/camera combinations. When in use, the stabilized camera mount actively keeps the camera level even as the UAV tilts and moves.

New programming in the handheld GCS (Ground Control Station) adds new functions including return to home, stare point, vision based points of interest, and navigation points of interest. Return to home allows the operator to simply press a button, causing the UAV to rise to a clear altitude, travel back to where it took off from, and auto-descend to ten meters (thirty feet). Stare point functionality keeps the camera pointed at a location of the operators choosing. Vision based points of interest allow locations to be specified on-screen without the need for access to map data, and navigation points of interest allow saving any location for future automatic return.

The Draganflyer line of multirotor UAV helicopters are legal for use by emergency services in North America, approved by Transport Canada and the FAA, and have the largest public safety installed base in North America.

Draganfly Innovations, manufacturer of the first civilian sUAS helicopter system to be credited with saving a life, designs Draganflyer helicopters, the best aerial vehicles in the world, along with Draganview control software. Draganfly leads the aerial imaging and public safety revolution with its gyro stabilized camera mounts. Draganfly has reinvented the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and is defining the emergency services market with the Draganflyer X4-ES Ultra Portable.

Visit Draganfly Innovations for more information on the X4-ES and other Draganflyer Products.

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On May 10, 2013, following the successful use of the Draganflyer X4-ES in locating a man who had wandered away and became unconscious after a single vehicle roll-over in rural Saskatchewan, RCMP Corporal Doug Green was interviewed on CKOM John Gormley Live. Cpl Green talks about how the Draganflyer X4-ES, equipped with a FLIR camera, helped located the missing accident victim using heat signatures and how the technology ultimately saved the man’s life.

Listen Here

View RCMP Video here

In the early hours of the morning, a driver injured in a single vehicle rollover became lost and unresponsive in the wooded area off of a Canadian highway. After an unsuccessful attempt on the part of a STARS Air Ambulance, the injured driver was rescued after being spotted by a FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) camera carried by a Draganflyer X4-ES quadrotor UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Saskatoon, SK – May 09, 2013

In the early hours of the morning, a driver injured in a single vehicle rollover became lost and unresponsive in the wooded area off of a Canadian highway. STARS air ambulance searched the area and was unable to locate the subject using their night vision goggles. The RCMP arrived on-site with the Draganflyer X4-ES system, coordinated their flight with the full size aircraft, and quickly located the driver using the Draganflyer helicopter equipped with a small FLIR thermal imaging camera.

After being called in at 00:20 hours on May 9, 2013, Saskatoon RCMP investigated the scene of a single vehicle rollover, finding only indications that at least one person had been in the vehicle and was injured. The accident scene was located on Highway #5, 5km east of St. Denis, Saskatchewan, which is about 35km from Saskatoon.

RCMP worked with St. Denis and Vonda Fire Rescue teams and EMS personnel from MD Ambulance. A search of the ground within 200 meters of the scene did not turn up anything. A STARS Air Ambulance was called in and conducted an aerial night vision search of 1000 meters surrounding the area, also without result.

Corporal Doug Green, a Forensic Collision Reconstructionist, equipped with a Draganflyer X4-ES UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) was called in. The Draganflyer UAV located three heat signatures and upon investigating the first, the injured driver was found curled up and unresponsive at the base of a tree next to a snow bank. He was wearing only pants and a t-shirt, having lost his shoes.

The searchers indicated that without the Draganflyer UAV, they would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight. Because of the near freezing temperatures, it is possible that the injured driver would not have survived until then, due to hypothermia. Zenon Dragan of Draganfly Innovations Inc., the manufacturer of the UAV, states “To our knowledge, this is the first time a public safety agency has saved a life using a sUAS (small Unmanned Aerial System) helicopter”.

Video from the Draganflyer UAS can be viewed on the RCMP YouTube channel.

Detailed information is available on the RCMP homepage.

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Draganflyer X4-ES UAV

May 9, 2013

Early this morning, Saskatoon RCMP received a call of a single vehicle rollover on Highway #5 about 5 km east of St. Denis, Saskatchewan.

RCMP, along with St. Denis and Vonda Fire Rescue, and EMS from MD Ambulance responded to the scene. Upon arriving at the scene, emergency responders could not locate the vehicle’s occupants. The examination of the scene indicated that at least one person had been in the vehicle and was injured. A ground search was conducted within 200 meters of the scene but searchers were unable to locate anyone.

Cpl. Doug Green, a Forensic Collision Reconstuctionist with the RCMP, was contacted and it was requested that he attend the scene with the Draganflyer X4-ES UAV equipped with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera. Once Cpl. Green arrived on the scene, the Draganflyer was launched and a search was initiated in the area of the last known location of the driver. Three heat signatures showed up on the screen of the FLIR. Cpl. Green directed Vonda Fire Department members towards the first heat signature located in the trees 200 meters from his first known GPS location. Fire & Rescue members located the driver at this location, curled up in a ball at the base of a tree next to a snow bank. He was unresponsive and only wearing a t-shirt and pants, having lost his shoes. He was quickly brought out to the road by Fire/Rescue, placed in an ambulance, and was transported to hospital in Saskatoon. Without the Draganflyer X4-ES and FLIR camera, searchers would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight. This technology may have saved the driver’s life.

To our knowledge, this is the first time that a life may have been saved due to the help of a sUAS helicopter.

Read the full RCMP Press Release here.

News Talk 650 CKOM Article

CTV News Story

CBC News Story

Watch the video of the Draganflyer X4-ES with FLIR: