Why a multi-discipline firm chose a fixed-wing sUAS solution for large-scale surveying and quantities for mines and quarries.

Editor’s note: When xyHt began covering the rise of sUAS for AEC applications years ago, many of the early successful entries into the burgeoning sUAS market were fixed-wing craft, like those from Gatewing (that we wrote about in Flight School and Yearning to Fly). Since, much of the press has been about rotor-based sUAS—that have become quite commoditized.

But fixed-wing solutions have continued to garner a substantial share of the market, for reasons exemplified in the following article. There are numerous applications where the fixed-wing sUAS are by far the best choice.

We’d also like to note that the sUAS solution provider in this story, Delair, includes elements of the legacy of the pioneering fixed-wing firm Gatewing (Trimble) as one of their strategic acquisitions in 2016.

When Wood, a global leader in engineering services, first investigated using drones, they encountered barriers in the cost and the learning curve of the technology. For Wood, the Delair UX11 was the first drone that removed those barriers. With support from Delair, a leading supplier of commercial drone solutions, and Delair’s reseller partner, Frontier Precision, Wood recently implemented its first fixed-wing aerial data collection program.

“Where the technology and the costs are now, everything just fell into place,” says Greg Meinecke, technical services manager at Wood. “The UX11 was the right drone at the right time for us to get into the industry and make it work for us.”

Read the Full Article HERE