From the hobby room to huge military contracts. Great nature photos for your Instagram feed and accusations of espionage. Drones are in the air like never before. They can be divided into four main groups. Hobby, utility, research and military drones. Within each group there are many subcategories. We start with the smallest, because in this landscape, being small is no disadvantage. The “black hornet” “Black Hornet 3” weighs 32 grams and can fly in bad weather. It has a normal camera and a thermal camera, and can thus transmit images and data during the day and at night. It can withstand extreme cold and heat. This drone series also has an even smaller version at only 18 grams. Who uses them? Thousands of these drones have been sold to the defense market, as well as police and state security organizations. It is currently in use in over 40 countries .How much does it cost? You have to shell out around NOK 2 million for one “Black Hornet”. They are usually sold in a package where you get x number of units and training of the system. Is it used in warfare? Yes. The drones can be used for reconnaissance and surveillance, to get a better overview of the battlefield. Norway and Great Britain are working together to get exactly this type of drone to Ukraine. Is it true that it is Norwegian? The Black Hornet is a small Norwegian drone adventure that has grown big internationally. In 2016, Prox Dynamics was sold to the American company FLIR Systems. But the drones are still being developed and produced at Eggemoen outside Hønefoss. (One last thing before you soar further. It is possible to swipe right under each drone for more information.) In the next group you may find the drone you own. Or that neighbor fiddles a lot every time there’s a nice sunset on the horizon. The people’s drone464,000 Norwegians own one or more drones. This corresponds to 12.3 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 70. In this category we find everything from small toy drones to larger film and photo drones. Figures from Norwegian drone barometer 2021 How do you control them? The standard solution for the most sold drones in this category is that they are controlled with your own mobile phone. You download an app and connect the phone to a control provided. At the next level, it comes with a control with a screen. What is it used for? A mid-range drone for both price and size in this category can record video in 4K HDR and has a range of 12 kilometers. Can it be misused? There are examples of drones intended for completely different areas being used in war. In Ukraine, drones built by amateurs in basements contributed to the victory in the battle for KyivMost purchasedDJI series is dominant in the world market for drones. This applies to everything from the small hobby drones to the larger utility drones. In the USA, the American government agency wants to blacklist the Chinese drone manufacturer. Wow factor The world’s fastest drone, RacerX, was measured at an average speed of 263 kilometers per hour. The top speed was recorded at slightly unbelievable 289 km/h The next group flies high, far and long. But what good does it do? Easier to research nature For many years, researchers at the Institute of Marine Research have been counting seals along the coast. They have used car, boat and plane to cover all areas of the coast. Drones have revolutionized that work. What do they look like? It depends on the area of use. Those that are supposed to cover large areas are similar to small gliders, while others may resemble the hobby drones only with even more camera options. New solutions Instrumented drones should give the Swedish Road Administration a faster and better basis for assessing the risk of landslides. Safer and hopefully even more effective. Gentle on nature Cultural monuments and national parks can be monitored without regular visits. In the wet element Drones are used today to investigate coral reefs and other underwater environments. If you want to see crabs and small fish up close, you can get an underwater drone for hobby use for around NOK 15,000. What if the drone can lift, transport and help? Then it can actually come in handy. Well, there are already good examples of that. The new workhorse in agriculture Agricultural drones are already widely used in Asia. With precision fertilization with a drone, you can reduce the amount of fertilizer by up to 80-90 percent. The same applies to the use of pesticides. A single drone can plant thousands of trees in one day. Presumably, we have only seen the beginning of what drones can contribute to agriculture. Can I have packages delivered to my door by drones? Yes. In theory. You may have heard about Amazon’s vision of the future where packages are delivered by air instead of by road. They are starting a trial project in California. It will probably be a while before we see it in Norway. Police, rescue services and media There are many good opportunities here, but there is always a privacy challenge at the forefront. Drones are regulated by the aviation authorities . In commercial use, permission must also be obtained from the National Security Authority (NSM). The largest group is both impressive and terrifying. It is used for espionage, surveillance and warfare. The largest military drone, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, is used by the US Air Force for surveillance. It is equipped with radar and infrared sensors to see through cloud cover. It weighs about the same as an African savannah elephant (6,500 kilos). Can you equip them with weapons? Yes. The illustration above shows the MQ-9 Reaper, which is among the largest and most dangerous. It is also called Predator B. The USA, France and Italy are among the countries that have this available. About the size of an airplane The very largest drones can weigh over 20 tons and have a wingspan of 40 meters, the most advanced have a range of several hundred kilometers . We pull the control lever and leave the landscape with military drones. As mentioned, the largest group is the one you can manage yourself. But it’s not just sending a craft into the air. Here we have collected the most important rules.
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The big drone guide. From smallest to largest. These are the drones used in Norway. – Directly
