When trying to raise money for a Kickstarter project and the United States Air Force comes along and gives you one million dollars, you know you have a good idea. In addition, The Dragonfly mini drone will not be limited to the military; consumers can get their hands on one too.
The Dragonfly mini drone is a palm size aerial vehicle that can be controlled and programmed through a smartphone application. It works by using brushless motors through a patented continuous variable transmission to flap the wings and stay airborne. The power for the unit comes from a rechargeable lithium polymer battery giving the unit about thirty minutes of flight time. The vehicle can hover, glide and be programmed to fly specific routes all while carrying a payload, like a camera or other device. At only six inches in length, when the Dragonfly is airborne, people cannot tell it is not an actual dragonfly.
The Dragonfly mini drone will be available in four different models that go from the most basic to fully loaded with a camera, GPS and their most sophisticated avionics. The entire unit is configurable with wings in various shapes from bat to bug, different colors and a selection of on-board flight computers. Every model can have a camera and wireless communications added as options that come standard on the two higher-end models.
The Dragonfly has several applications aside from military uses from security, photography, telepresence, gaming or just to have fun while with your pets flying it around the house. Each Dragonfly also comes with the full software development kit allowing programmers to create their own applications or start a swarm business.