The $200,000 toy heli

Vincent.W February 4, 2013 at 7:35am

I thought it was only worth $20. We shouldn't spend so much money to buy it. Perhaps. Spend so much money that you'll find out with you have a plane kept in your yard, including going to the restroom.

John Moore February 4, 2013 at 7:22am

Typical defense contract. The government pays for almost all of the RDT&E of the system and IF the thing actually works the contractor gets to sell it and make the profit. If it doesnt work the government is out of its money and the contractor moves on to the next thing.

Rob_Lefebvre February 4, 2013 at 2:11am

Though, it should be also pointed out that the project is a perfect example of the "The Mythical Man-Month". It's taken how many years and how many imaginary dollars to get this far largely because the devs do it part time, can't stay focused on it, and there are many of them to get up to speed.

It's taken us how many years to get this far. Yet the AC code has been almost completely rewritten in in just a few months by just a few guys working virtually full-time on it.

Rob_Lefebvre February 4, 2013 at 2:08am

@John:

Exactly. I have made the exact same point a few times. The only reason Ardupilot is so cheap, is because so much of the development work is done for free.

This should never be forgotten.

sergei lupashin February 4, 2013 at 1:46am

@Bjørn Didriksen thanks for the info/reality check :-). DIYDrones is a bit of an echo-chamber.

Bjørn Didriksen February 4, 2013 at 1:24am

Read about this in Norwegian newspapers some time ago.

Please google translate if your Norwegian skils are limited ;-)

http://www.tu.no/industri/2012/05/03/flygende-spion-veier-16-gram (some more pictures)

http://www.tu.no/industri/2012/12/02/vil-selge-droner-til-politiet (some info about legislation as this is considered a weapon due to the use)

http://www.tu.no/ingeniorbragd/2012/10/26/norsk-uav-brukes-i-afghan... (technical info)

http://www.tu.no/nyeteknologier/2008/11/26/kan-bli-forsvarets-nye-v... (from late 2008)

According to Norwegian records, the company was founded in early 2008.

And when people are saying £20M... This is the upper limit. The contract is £2,5M.

"However, the following information publicly available: They work with military defense department, and last fall signed their UK distributor Marlborough Communications Limited a contract with the British Army for the delivery of nano-UAVs is worth 2.5 million pounds with a limit of up to 20 million." (http://www.tu.no/industri/2012/05/03/flygende-spion-veier-16-gram)

£2,5M divided by 160 units should be £15 625. Sooooo... Does anyone actually have the facts on this, or are we all just guessing a bit here???

Developer

John Arne Birkeland February 4, 2013 at 1:04am

I have to agree with Bart & Tony. If we where to apply standard engineering wages to the hours spent developing APM and supporting it (hardware, software, wiki, blogs, forums etc.), those $20m would be gone in a flash. And we aren't even remotely close to something that the military would even consider a finished product.