Thanks to sUAS News, here are the latest stats on commercial drone registrations in the US based on tail numbers, which actually tracks drone units and is a better indicator than Section 333 exemptions, which do not specify how many drones are used.
Its all platforms with an N number, so lots of legacy AeroVironment ones in there as well from the normal COA system. I know the FAA are way behind at releasing the numbers as one manufacturer shows 6 but actually has 15 with N's they have sent them to me. But I am waiting for them to appear on the official list. You can add the PrecisionHawk airframes to 3DR if you want to play it by autopilot. I should think Ardupilot is in a fairly high percentage of the total number.
A chart based on type of autopilot used would also be very interesting.
If we take the liberty and assume that most of the other brands use APM in some shape or form, then this looks a lot like the iPhone vs Android charts that show Android having more users overall. But spread over many different brands of phones.
Comments
Registered as aircraft is about thousand , produced in any manner are hundreds thousands. This staticstics review is very poor =)
Our statistics based on commercial licenses of UgCS (One and Pro) by autopilot types:
3DR Pixhawk/APM - 51%
DJI (A2, WKM, Naza-M v2 + Phantom) - 31%
Micropilot - 10%
Microdrones - 3%
Mikrokopter - 2%
Other - 2%
P.S. Lockheed Martin has Indago quad for commercial market, quite expensive, but not as F-35...
Can people get exemptions for self built drones? Is that the "other" section?
Its all platforms with an N number, so lots of legacy AeroVironment ones in there as well from the normal COA system. I know the FAA are way behind at releasing the numbers as one manufacturer shows 6 but actually has 15 with N's they have sent them to me. But I am waiting for them to appear on the official list. You can add the PrecisionHawk airframes to 3DR if you want to play it by autopilot. I should think Ardupilot is in a fairly high percentage of the total number.
Old meaning 2013...
The defense guys know, from a damage standpoint a crash is a crash whether it's a 75k unit vs a 2k unit. Same end result.
And since the biggest hurdle for the dod guys in the drone space is rf licensing (we have the same challenges), 2.4ghz is 'good enough '.
Interestingly Lockheed Martin is also in the list, mil drones also included?
A chart based on type of autopilot used would also be very interesting.
If we take the liberty and assume that most of the other brands use APM in some shape or form, then this looks a lot like the iPhone vs Android charts that show Android having more users overall. But spread over many different brands of phones.