The Kestrel Vertical Lift Airplane Drone Is Designed For Long-Range And Endurance…

While at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas in January 2017, ANN CEO and Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell, visited with the people at Autel Robotics and discovered that not all drones are vertical lift quadcopter’s. In this video, we take a look at a drone called the Kestrel.

Jim spoke with Natalie Cheng, who is the Director of Communications for Autel and Mark Schwarzbach, the Director of Applications & Systems at Autel Robotics. Jim noted that Autel is doing some pretty interesting things with compound fixed wing airplanes, which means an airplane that can take off and land vertically but cruise like a normal airplane.

It’s a good thing you can see this on the video because it’s hard to describe. It looks more like an airplane than anything else, and is powered by four electric motors. All four motors are used for takeoff and landing, but in cruise flight two of the motors are shut down. Cheng points out that the design is modular and can hold various imaging systems.

Schwarzbach says the Kestrel has an endurance of up to two hours, which is one of the advantages of its fixed wing design. It also has a higher payload than you would find on the typical quadcopter. The video then gets into the topic of data processing, and this is where you need to tune in to get the details. The Kestrel is a fascinating design, and the video gives you a good look at how it works.

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