[00:00.00]American companies are developing unmanned aircraft systems that are larger than drones.
[00:09.40]The goal is for the aircraft to help agricultural producers and reduce risks to human safety.
[00:19.12]When Hector Xu was learning to pilot a helicopter in college, he remembered having a few bad experiences while flying at night.
[00:31.51]The experiences led him to research unmanned aircraft systems while getting his doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[00:43.51]Then, Xu formed Rotor Technologies in 2021 to develop unmanned helicopters.
[00:52.56]Rotor has built two autonomous helicopters that the company calls Sprayhawks.
[01:00.66]Rotor aims to have as many as 20 Sprayhawks ready for market next year.
[01:07.97]The company also is developing helicopters that would fly shipments into disaster areas and to oil rigs in oceans.
[01:18.70]The helicopters could also be used to fight wildfires.
[01:24.31]For now, Rotor is paying attention to agriculture.
[01:28.86]The industry has accepted automation with drones but sees unmanned helicopters as a better way to spray larger areas with pesticides and fertilizers.
[01:44.02]A major appeal of automation in agriculture flights is safety.
[01:50.19]Because special airplanes called crop dusters fly at around 240 kph and only about 3 meters off the ground, there are tens of accidents each year.
[02:07.96]The small planes hit power lines, cell towers and other planes.
[02:14.57]Older planes in disrepair and pilot tiredness play a part in accidents.
[02:22.31]A 2014 report from the National Transportation Safety Board found there were more than 800 agriculture flight accidents between 2001 and 2010, including 81 that were deadly.
[02:41.81]A separate report from the National Agriculture Aviation Association found nearly 640 accidents from 2014 until this month with 109 deaths.
[02:57.49]"It is a very, very dangerous, profession," said Dan Martin, a research engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Service.
[03:12.00]Martin said about the pilots, "They make all their money in those short few months so sometimes it may mean that they fly 10 to 12 hours a day or more."
[03:26.21]Job risks also include possible contact with farming chemicals.
[03:32.57]In recent years, safety and cost concerns have led to a number of drones flying above farmers' fields, Martin said.
[03:43.28]He added that some 10,000 drones will likely be sold this year alone.
[03:50.47]"It's growing exponentially as a market, super fast," Martin said.
[03:57.36]But the size of the drones means they only can cover a small amount of the area that a plane or helicopter can.
[04:07.98]The limitation is providing an opening for companies building bigger unmanned aircraft like Rotor and another company, Pyka.
[04:19.43]California-based Pyka announced in August that it had sold its first autonomous electric aircraft for crop protection to a buyer in the United States.
[04:33.74]Pyka's Pelican Spray, a fixed-wing aircraft, received official approval last year to fly for crop protection.
[04:43.81]The company also sold its Pelican Spray to Dole for use in Honduras and to the Brazilian company, SLC Agrícola.
[04:56.57]Lukas Koch is chief technology officer at Heinen Brothers Agra Services, the company which bought the Pelican Spray in August.
[05:09.28]Koch has called unmanned aircraft part of a coming "revolution," that will save farmers money and increase safety.
[05:19.90]The Kansas-based company operates out of airports from Texas to Illinois.
[05:27.10]Koch does not see the unmanned aircraft replacing all the company's pilots but rather taking over the riskiest jobs.
[05:37.62]"The biggest draw is taking the pilot out of the aircraft inside of those most dangerous situations," Koch said.
[05:48.00]But Koch also says that autonomous aviation systems could bring new dangers to an already busy airspace.
[05:58.26]Still, the risk is less of a concern in rural areas with plenty of open space and fewer people.
[06:07.46]Companies like Rotor have developed their systems to work if bad events come up.
[06:15.20]Rotor's helicopter, for example, has a half-dozen communications systems and, for now, a remote pilot in control.
[06:27.18]If the ground team loses contact with the helicopter, Rotor has a system to deal with the problem.
[06:35.38]The system makes sure the engine can be turned off and the helicopter can perform a controlled landing.
[06:45.08]The safety measures will go a long way to helping the company receive what it expects will be official government approval to fly its helicopters for business purposes.
[06:58.89]Once the company has approval, the difficulty, as Xu sees it, will be building more devices to meet the demand in the United States and Brazil.
[07:12.74]I'm John Russell.
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Words in This Story
drone - n. a small uncrewed aircraft guided by remote control or onboard computers
helicopter-n. an aircraft whose lift comes from one or more powered rotors turning about vertically
autonomous - adj. undertaken or carried on without outside control
pesticide - n. a chemical or agent used to destroy pests
crop duster - n. the airplane used to spray crops especially with pesticides
exponentially - adv. characterized by an extremely fast increase
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