Anyone know whose drone this is? It must have a fancy camera for $75k.
excerpt:
The state Department of Transportation's Harbors Division has been unable to use an unmanned drone aircraft purchased with $75,000 in federal grant money to provide security at Honolulu Harbor because it falls within restricted airspace near Honolulu International Airport.
Comments
@Ellison--You're absolutely right. In this case, though, I think the drone connection might be the hook to the story, otherwise I doubt we'd be reading about a $75G mistake in a $1.4MM grant. I'm glad Mr. Starwalk (above) did some digging. The story he linked to from 1/2011 shows there's actually a back-story here, which didn't really come out in this new article. From that article:
"Paul Schultz, chief executive of Hawaiya Technologies, the company installing the new security measures, refused to discuss his company’s shoreline security plans in general or the use of UAV’s in particular.
“You can go find out your story on your own,” Schultz said. “This is not a friendly story,” Schultz continued. ”You’re coming after me. You can come after me by yourself. But don’t call me looking for information.”"
Wow. I think if you live in Hawaii and have been following this grant money story, all of this might hang together a little more. In isolation and out of context, this new article doesn't seem to be about a big deal. I actually wondered why that poor spokesman was going so far out of his way to fall on his sword over this. Sure, it was a mistake, but it just didn't seem all that newsworthy, nor worthy of such self-depracation on behalf of the department. Given the back-story, it makes a little more sense.
About the drone, it looks awfully familiar and I wonder if Hawaiya Technologies is actually the designer and/or manufacturer. It seems they are more of an integrator of security technologies.
Doug, 0.05% may seem little money, but that's two salaries of a private sector worker. There are hundreds even thousands of such wastes in the government every year. It adds up. A simple phone call to the air authorities would have saved the need to waste the money or maybe an exception could have been secured. People in government should not be held to a more relaxed standard of competence. In this case it was shear incompetence.
Ellison - Sure I agree with the sentiment, but 0.05%? I'm sure the DOT (and everyone else) has bigger efficiencies to find...
Paul, if there was a high profile news story every time 0.05% of money was wasted, there would less wasting of money. People in government, spending our money, would think twice about doing stupid things. The people a the DOT need to be removed from fiscal decisions and if any corruption is found they should be fired.
Ok, I am going to stop with this.. I hope.
Here is another article about the same company, drone focused, and the awarded project.. http://www.suasnews.com/2011/01/3607/now-drones-for-hawaii-coastline/
The vendor has a subsection on the net that is still live..http://www.hawaiyatech.com/seaporte.html
I shouldn't have enjoyed Lisbeth's character so much...investigative linking is addictive when results are obtained.
Here's the vendor mentioned in the article... http://www.hawaiyatech.com/
'Under Construction' so... FWIW
Regarding the aircraft, it looks like the camera/link module was developed separately and the flying surfaces added later. The wing 'pylon' is attached to a saddle that is fastened to the camera/link module. In the article, a photo from the right rear side shows most of the flying surfaces.
Some aspects remind me of a Free Flight C class model...except that massive motor/prop. Wow.
I also wonder if it was part of an option for the entire surveilance system?
The vendor/OEM could have developed the camera/link modules and then just bolted the flying stuff on.
as i understood, a drone was crushed and thats why drone can't be used anymore :)
nothing about "not working", "buggy software" or "bad construction".
"because it falls within restricted airspace near Honolulu International Airport"
Out of a $1.4 million grant, $75,000 amounts to 0.05%. The only reason this is news is because a drone is involved. Can you imagine if every time 0.05% of tax money is wasted we got a news story?
This look similar (but not exactly the same) to Skylark UAV from Elbit
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next