Way Cool !!

[Falcon 1]

You all may have seen this before but I thought it was worth posting.
One of my friends just bought it for $3600.00.

http://www.nationalinfrared.com/x20/shop/pshow.php?SKU=UAV-E2&id_category=17

[Magician]

Falcon,
I'm not sure I buy that story. The UAV that is referenced is made by Lew Aerospace and is called the INVENTUS C-class. You can see it here:

http://www.lewaerospace.com/uavC.htm

The $3600 price is listed as the cost for overhaul, not for an air vehicle. I doubt you could buy a UAV with a $5000 autopilot for only $3600. If so, I'd suggest that your friend buy a lot of them :)

[Terry S]

Looks like a toy to me.

Terry

[Magician]

Looks like a toy to me. Terry

Terry,
It's definitely not a toy, it's a real UAV in the same class as the Dragon Eye or Raven. I just question the fact that Falcon's friend bought one for $3600.

[lvspark]

I think they had one on Ebay for $80,000 a few months ago..

[Aercam]

Falcon,
I'm not sure I buy that story. The UAV that is referenced is made by Lew Aerospace and is called the INVENTUS C-class. You can see it here:

http://www.lewaerospace.com/uavC.htm

The $3600 price is listed as the cost for overhaul, not for an air vehicle. I doubt you could buy a UAV with a $5000 autopilot for only $3600. If so, I'd suggest that your friend buy a lot of them :)

Hey guys,

Not sure if these are the same vehicles mentioned.

According to the first link, other than looking similar to the LEW machine, it has different specs. The LEW is a 39 inch W.S. while the other is a 72 inch W.S. and carries more payload.

Gotta admit though that the UAV market is really hot these days wheras a few years ago when we were in the business, there was not a great selection.

V

[Myron]

Hey Guys,

I would respectfully have to call "bull" on that 3600.00 price for that bird.. It is either a different likeness or maybe at best a stripped down airframe. Maybe you can get you buddy to post some "hands on pics" of this bird?

Myron

[Magician]

Myron,
I agree completely and this was my original point. But I like the way you said it better!

Aercam,
Yep, the specs don't agree pretty much across the board. My guess is that the resellers info was posted early on during the Inventus development when they only had a 72" electric and a much larger gas version. It seems that they have shrunk the electric to 39", grew the original electric to 78" to accomodate either electric or gas and still have the big gas bird.

It is strange that Falcon1 has only posted once and that was to promote a product from National Infrared. Hmmmm, I suspect an add here....

[Unterhausen]

I always wondered about that plane, i've been to that site looking for infrared cameras. I can see getting an RC plane with a downlink and a cheap infrared camera for that price though. Nothing with an autopilot, although I suspect we'll see that in the future.
Eric

[Myron]

Unterhausen,

If your looking to fly a FLIR, you should look at the Indigo A-10 FLIR camera. We intergrated one for testing in one of our birds for Texas Equusearch.. Total AUW for the FLIR camera was only 12 oz.. I was a little nervous throwing a 10K camera for the first time, but all went well...

Myron

[Unterhausen]

Myron,
I don't have the guts to do that. We might put them in our robots, and we have a couple mounted on the wall. Have you ever looked at the camera they use in the BMWs?

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet. I've been extra busy.
Eric

[wadiprawita]

The BMWs use FLIR PathFindIR, I heard the price is around 4400 US$

-doni-

[Myron]

doni,

Are you sure its not just a basic I/R security cam with some LED's to illuminate the area? After looking at the site, it looks like the one we flew has been changed a little to this one... The camera was awesome, You can rub your hands together and make a little friction, then press your palm on the wall and after you remove your hand, you can see the image for quite some time and also watch it fade away.

http://www.indigosystems.com/products/core_micron_access.html


Myron

[trafton]

How much did that camera cost you, Myron?

.......oh nevermind 10,000 right :o

[lvspark]

The BMW does use the FLIR PathfindIR with 19mm lens. Probably about the same FOV as your A-10 but more res. It's a fully weatherproof module with low power consumption (will run off a 9v batt for a couple hrs). It does have RS-232 on the connector but it's not used on the beamers.

[Unterhausen]

we use Raytheon cameras, before I give a tour of my lab to kids, I have somebody lie on the floor for a few minutes before the kids show up. The heat lasts for at least 30 minutes. I got the idea after one tour group all leaned up against the wall while I was showing them some robots.