Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. The Albatross prototypes are flying as we speak and we are amidst testing and refining the airframe for production with quite a few additional products in the works. More information to come soon.
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We wanted to firstly say thank you. Thank you for your patience, your understanding and your support. It is your efforts and feedback that drove this project to what it became and we are forever appreciative of that.
We told you Monday we would start taking orders and Monday it is so we wanted to write here first. This community has given us a great deal of ideas, offered us a strong base of supporters with many providing feedback and companies alike. As such, we wanted to offer and showcase this to not just our community but people outside of our community that may not know the possibilities or existence of affordable tools like this. Our aim has always been to offer products, may it be airframes, complete ready to fly solutions, ground stations, etc at prices that can fit any budget but at the same time to not compromise quality. We wanted to vastly surpass the limits and hindrances that come with foam based aircraft and really create something priced right and unique. We have spent the last couple of weeks finalizing what has become our initial online intention – to begin offering our products via a Kickstarter campaign. Our website is now up as well but our aim is to show people that may be interested that are not of the same DIY nature that this forum is built upon what these aircraft can do and that they are within reach. All that said, the last people we want to turn our backs on are the very ones that supported us all along the way so we wanted to not only tell you all here first but also enable a way to make sure delivery preference starts with you. With any item you order, send us a message via Kickstarter or email and we will make sure yours are shipped out first. We have already made an order in anticipation of tomorrow so production has already started but as you know price, quality and quantity is a difficult task to manage. We know reasonable prices are achievable and maintainable in quantity without sacrificing quality. At the same time, prices need to start low in order to achieve the quantity needed so we have moved ahead as planned with the low prices we promised all along but to remain at these low prices the Kickstarter needs to meet its goals. Regardless though, if it does not, the airframes will still be produced but will have to suffer a price increase. We wanted to come to you with transparency in mind and with our products, tried test, pushed past their limits and then repeatedly done again and again. That’s what we have done and we look forward to seeing what you do with your Albatross.
Feel free to e-mail us with any questions at info@AppliedAeronautics.com (emails are now 100% operational and we’ll do our best to get anything answered for you).
The Applied Aeronautics Team
Check us out on Facebook@appliedaeronautics, Instagram@appliedaeronautics and Twitter@applied_aero
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/164361630/the-albatross-uav
The Applied Aero Team
I wanna fly so high With this bird..... now.... :)
In the spirit of transparency and answering quite a few questions we thought it would be good to write this update. Rather than showcase some of our other products we have been developing and readying for production, we've been silent finalizing the production ramp-up of the airframes. We currently have several planes in our possession from prototypes to production quality airframe. Everything is designed, tested and operational. We are still ironing out a few wrinkles in production with one manufacturer who builds the most intricate and expensive piece of the airframe. Over the course of development, flaws were fixed, manufacturing procedures were modified, internal structures were redesigned, use of materials were refined, and several other refinements took place. This caused a false sense of expenditure, so our manufacturer increased our price. In the spirit of sticking with our initial price goal, we absorbed that and kept moving forward. As we are moving forward, we are ready to deliver the final product in large quantities, however again, our manufacturer will not deliver unless we renegotiate another new price, or increase our volume substantially. (This is despite our numerous contracts, invoices, and signed agreements). We are working to resolve it in a timely manner, as we know that not only are you all waiting anxiously, but we are as well. As mentioned, everything from design, development, and testing is complete, and when we say we are at the end of the road, we are. We have some serious logistics to work out and find the path that enables us to deliver what we have aimed for all along, as this has been our mission from day 1. We will not cut quality to make this happen. We set target prices that were built upon not estimates but actual costs and we are doing our best to adhere to those. Once we have this final and honestly unexpected piece of the puzzle resolved, we are looking forward to showing you our other products we have been developing. We have a great team here behind the scenes, who are working diligently towards a resolution. We do have a backup plan in place that will be addressed on our end if a resolution is not met in a timely manner. We are pushing hard to get this done as has been our goal, and we won't stop until we do. You all are really going to like the plane, we've done some fun and incredible things with it and we want to see what the community can achieve. Please, bear with us this week. We'll keep you all apprised as we get this finalized. When we have the green light for this last piece, you'll be the first to hear.
On a lighter note, we do have plenty of pictures to show, this hiccup has just taken precedent at the last second of release. We appreciate all the support. We'll get this done.
-The Applied Aero Team
Gentlemen, I agree with Tommy, I would really like to order a plane now! Time is catching up with me....once I get the plane, I need about 2 weeks to install everything and test the Plane. If everything is fine, I would like to order more Planes.
I would really really like to order this airplane now! :)
Any ETA ?
To anyone who has not yet seen our contest, please feel free to check it out and participate!
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/applied-aeronautics-albatross-d...
We have published a color scheme contest. The winning artist/designer will receive a FREE airframe with his/her color scheme. We will also be using the winning color scheme as the alternate color for our production aircraft!
Sounds good :)
We are working very hard to get these things into all of your hands! However, in doing so we would like it to be as easy and worry free as possible.
Also, we are working on some more future media for your viewing pleasure!
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