Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
LIFTOFF
Kiwi ingenuity is seeing firms here power
ahead in the fast-growing market for drones, B11
Aeronavics director Linda Bulk
PAGE 1 of 6
Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
PAGE 2 of 6
Kiwi craft
leads the
way in drone
industry
Fiona Rotherham
Movie-making and rescue
services among areas
targeted by companies
Good old Kiwi ingenuity on a shoestring budget could see the world’s
first unmanned aerial vehicle for
long-range search and rescue operational within the next two years.
The Coastguard has been working
with Christchurch-based Global
Aerial Platforms (GAP) for three years
on two unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAV) that could help save the lives of
more people lost at sea.
The smaller UAV can be launched
off a boat and relays information back
to Coastguard staff on where any
survivors are in the water and also a
better view of what’s under the water.
The larger UAV, named Toroa after
the Maori word for albatross, will be
used to drop off emergency supplies
to survivors, such as life rafts, and to
send back information via sensors
from a much longer range offshore. It
can fly up to 10 hours at a time and up
to 200 nautical miles offshore in
weather conditions too severe for
more conventional craft.
“That’s quite a leap over other
UAVs,” said Coastguard spokesman
Gordon McKay.
Following recent successful trial
flights of the two prototype UAVs in
Canterbury, McKay hopes to have the
smaller model operational within a
year and the larger 60kg one within
two years pending new Civil Aviation
y
p
g
regulations on flying into commercial
airspace and beyond the operator’s
line of sight.
The Coastguard UAVs have also
reached the semifinals in a United
Arab Emirates Drones for Good competition offering a Dh$1 million
($340,000) prize to international
entrants for drones providing valueadded services to improve human
life.
The volunteer-run charity holds
the intellectual property rights for the
communications system within the
drones while GAP has the IP for the
composite frames supporting them.
GAP co-owner Graham Tully said
his company has fronted about
$360,000 in development costs so far
and is now seeking angel investors to
fund completing commercial models
of three variants of the UAVs which
are under construction. The company wants to raise between
$250,000 to $750,000 to get the
models to the point where they can be
commercialised for search and rescue
here and overseas.
Meanwhile, UAVs made by Raglanbased Aeronavics are one of only two
systems granted US Federal Aviation
Authority exemption to be used for
film and television work in
Hollywood.
The exemptions, covering six media and film companies, were a milestone in broadening the currently
limited legal use of commercial
drones in the US.
And in another major breakh
hf
h l
l
d
through for the local UAV industry,
the University of Canterbury was the
first in the country to be given Civil
Aviation Authority (CAA) permission
for two test zones for flying drones
out of the pilot’s line of sight.
Aeronavics director Linda Bulk,
who co-owns the four-year-old company with husband Rob Brouwer, said
publicity over the FAA decision had
sparked demand for its SkyJib 8 engine craft.
“We’ve had an influx of inquiries
and there’s a lot of potential revenue
but we are now really stretched.
Everything requires energy and investment. The interest is far beyond
what the company can digest,” she
said.
That has prompted them to launch
a $700,000 capital raising from private investors to rapidly expand the
business.
The company was originally
started in Australia before the couple
moved to New Zealand where they
now have 10 staff. It started out producing multi-rotor airframes now
used worldwide for aerial photography, film-making, and agricultural
and industrial applications and later
expanded to become a one-stopshop, selling ready-to-use UAVs as
well as the airframes.
Aeronavics is one of a number of
New Zealand businesses at the forefront of developing UAVs, which are
also known as drones or remotely
piloted aircraft systems (RPAs).
Their use has taken off in New Zealand and beyond but that is causing
Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
growing concern about public safety
and privacy issues.
issues
The CAA will release new interim
regulations in March that better accommodate use of the new technology while still ensuring safety.
Commercial uses here include
mapping and auditing kiwifruit
orchards, farm mapping and pasture
measurement, and monitoring electricity lines and infrastructure.
To help the local industry capitalise on world demand Callaghan Innovation has established an industry
association, UAVNZ and is preparing
an economic case study. It has also
organised the industry’s first symposium and trade show in the Wairarapa next January.
Aviation programme manager
Chris Thomson said the industry
cluster of around 100 organisations
wanted to differentiate themselves
from cowboy operators.
“They wanted a combined voice
on the market opportunity rather
than a fractured one. There are a lot
of small players and they wanted
more horsepower in negotiations,”
he said.
Shaun Mitchell, co-founder of
Napier-based Altus Solutions which
provides UAVs to capture aerial
images in virtually any field, said the
biggest advantage of the industry
cluster was encouraging collaboration so local companies make the
most of the export opportunity. Recent market research has forecast the
economic impact of UAV technology
in the US alone to be $82 billion by
2025.
There’s nothing stopping anyone
buying a UAV and two years ago one
crashed into an Auckland building.
Mitchell said the low cost of UAVS and
easy accessibility had meant some
“rogue operators” were breaking
aviation rules, mostly out of ignorance.
No country has yet developed a
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
workable regulatory framework
though the international civil aviation
body is due to release new guidelines
for drone use in March.
The University of Canterbury’s
authority allows it to test longdistance use of UAVs without endangering other airspace users. The
nation’s remoteness, geography and
sparse population makes New Zealand an ideal testing ground.
Fred Samandari, director of the
university’s Wireless
l
Research
h
Centre, said the plan is to have products ready to go to market once aviation regulations change and legalise
flying out of the pilot’s line of sight.
This rests on the unmanned aircraft
having “sense and avoid” technology.
“These UAVS may be one or two
inches up to as large as major aircraft
— all of these things will be possible in
the future, “ Samandari said.
“We’re dealing with things that are
part of our daily routine whereas 20
to 30 years ago they would have been
in sci-fi movies.
“We’re now working on the next
20 to 30 years and what can be done
safely.”
BusinessDesk
PAGE 3 of 6
Rising higher
●
Commercial uses include farm
mapping and pasture
measurement, and monitoring
electricity lines and infrastructure.
● The use of drones has taken off but
that is causing growing concern
about public safety and privacy
issues.
● The CAA will release new interim
regulations in March that better
accommodate use of the new
technology.
● New Zealand’s remoteness,
geography and sparse population
make it an ideal testing ground.
Global Aerial
Platforms
●
Working for three years on two
unmanned aerial vehicles.
● The smaller one can be launched
off a boat and relays information
back to Coastguard staff on where
any survivors are in the water and
also gives a better view of what’s
under the water.
● The larger one can drop off
supplies, such as life rafts, and send
back information via sensors. It can
fly for up to 10 hours and up to 200
nautical miles offshore in weather
conditions too severe for more
conventional craft.
Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
Novice aviators able to
get tips from website
Airways Corporation has set up a
website www.airshare.co.nz to
provide tips for novice aviators and
the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
is considering a Google pop-up
providing regulatory advice when
someone searches about UAVs.
Drones weighing under 25kg fall
under the rules for model aircraft
and can be flown in most places
under a certain height, 4km away
from airfields, and within the line of
sight of the pilot.
CAA general manager of
general aviation Steve Moore said
the new interim guidelines aim to
ensure public safety while still
being flexible enough to
incorporate new technology yet to
be developed and allow the
industry to exploit the significant
export opportunity.
“Under this first phase the part
102 rule will accommodate all
current UAV operations into the
CAA system. The long-term game
is to integrate UAVs so unmanned
aircraft will share airspace with
manned aircraft,” Moore said.
“A commercial aircraft on its
final approach to Wellington
airport, the next one coming down
is an unmanned aircraft, and
people watching are not going to
know the second aircraft was
remotely piloted — that’s where
we’re going.”
Fiona Rotherham
PAGE 4 of 6
Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
PAGE 5 of 6
Weekend Herald, Auckland
08 Nov 2014, by Fiona Rotherham
Business News, page 9 - 2,041.00 cm²
Metro - circulation 204,549 (-----S-)
Copyright Agency certified copy
ID 337716617
BRIEF UNICANTAB INDEX 1
PAGE 6 of 6
Global Aerial Platforms is working with the Coastguard, while (below) drones made by Raglan-based Aeronavics are used for film work in Hollywood. Picture (above) / Brett Phibbs