According to this article, this very ordinary looking quadcopter from AirCover Solutions that's being promoted to US police forces costs $40,000 to $60,000. Can anyone explain why?
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According to this article, this very ordinary looking quadcopter from AirCover Solutions that's being promoted to US police forces costs $40,000 to $60,000. Can anyone explain why?
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Sure research and development is one thing I spent about $10k invested trying to standardize hardware for a drone that is easy to fly and fully featured. before I found DIY drones. But they are just using off the shelf parts and slapping a sticker on top. They dont even have a FLIR camera just a gopro slapped on the bottom with no mount. Any department would be a fool to purchase such a thing at that price.
Looks like they are using painted $32 hobbyking NX series motors. Certainly not 40k worth here, even with support. Can't help but laugh.
It is and has always been the way Gov't acquires things. The cost is astronomical, lets just be honest. Nothing inside that Quad is worth close to the $60k price tag. Comparing to a full size helicopter tasking on same request is crazy. This quad has neither the capability, time in flight, and range to compare to a full scale chopper. It at best gets 1 hr in flight, and I am sure its less no matter what they say - just look at the picture. Look at the propellers, no way can this thing do multiple hours in the air. It looks like a parrot frame with a sexy airforce lid on it.. But as discussed in this thread, they think if it costs $60k it must be the best ever ...... anything less is not as good...this is also the gov't thought process when purchasing......Pay more - get Less..... ;)
Not saying that $60k is throw away cash by any means but compared to a real helicopter, it is quite affordable. $400-600/hr is actually quite cheap for helicopter time. I've got well over 50hrs riding on a bunch of different civilian choppers and I've seen the bills. For $400-600/hr will only get you a R44 piston engine with only 2-3hrs of flight time if fully loaded with 2 big guys on board plus equipment. For a more powerful turbine bird, you're looking at $750-1000/hr for a 'cheap' Bell 205 Jet Ranger. A 'proper' chopper that's actually powerful enough to haul equipment and operate at high altitude for any length of time (like Denver) will run you $1250-1800/hr for a Eurocopter A-Star B3.
What makes me skeptical though is not the price but whether the drone can deliver the flight time of a real chopper. Choppers typically have flight times of 2-4hrs depending on load, altitude, and temperature. I doubt the drone can deliver a fraction of that. Granted, if your chopper has to be based out of the local airport, you'll probably be ferrying 15-30 minutes round trip for a city of any size and any ferrying time will bite into your flight time on location. Whereas with a drone, you can deploy it on location. Also, the ferrying time is not cheap and helicopters are not billed on flight time but engine time. Meaning you're also paying for at least 4 min of engine start up and shutdown. This alone costs $80 each time you start and stop the engines for a $1200/hr bird and you haven't even gotten off the ground.
Once you've factored in all the ferry time, if you're operating a $1200/hr chopper, you'd recoup the cost of ferrying in 150 deployments. If you're NYPD/LAPD, well you're probably flying multiple flights a day and you can probably make it all back in 3 months. All in all, even at $60k (which, by the way, is how much a single rotor blade (1 of 3) costs on an A-Star and has to be replaced every 2000 hours), if you can use a drone that will just work for small jobs, you can save a ton of money.
I'll tell you why the price is so high: First is the R&D, production, and distribution. Then comes the packaging and fielding expense which includes the pelican transport cases. Then there is included training... That includes paying for the trainers salary and per-diem for on-site training. This price also includes a great customer support network offered through Government contractors.
Carl, I have the exact same thinking sometimes.
Honestly Departments dont want a Less expensive option. I have been soliciting various fire and police departments and they are just not interested in a $10k drone, They think they are inferior to the $60k one as it must be better. I am half tempted to solicit the same departments that denied the original sales call with a $40k drone. I wonder if sales will pick up as since it costs more it must be better right?
Is not that integrating is wrong, is just that in this case integrating costs are very low.
Their business model is to throw in the net on the pond and see what Incautious fish they get. Even if they sell 5 in their first year, they make a big profit. Then they'll lower their price just to keep sales coming in.
Eventually, these type of business/companies are vomited by the market and won't last much.
It does seem obscene. If I hire a plumber to replace a copper pipe, I dont pay his entire year's salary for one task or pay for his entire inventory of copper and tools. If he wants to cover these costs, then he needs to stay busy and have many customers and even offer more than one product.
Yeah, I was thinking $2000 for the airframe, $20,000 kickback to somebody in the FAA to keep out all the cheap open source systems, and then that leaves $$38,000 to fuel the CEO's private jet. ;)
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