Hoverfly Sells 50th Tethered Drone System to U.S. Government

More than a year after launching a new product line, tether-drone firm Hoverfly Technologies announced a golden benchmark this week – selling its 50^th LiveSky system to an unnamed federal customer.

Due to the contract’s security terms, company officials can’t reveal the mysterious customer, but a law-enforcement or military client wouldn’t surprise us.

Unveiled at last year’s GSX conference in Las Vegas, LiveSky has been described as a “multiplier to augment labor costs by allowing control of multiple tethered drones from a single security operations center.”

“Delivering the 50th LiveSky System to this customer is a testament to our $12 million investment in engineering development over the last several years to bring a truly autonomous enterprise TUAS solution to the market. The fact that it works from moving vehicles or vessels provides customers flexibility and tremendous value,” Hoverfly CEO Rob Topping said.

“We listened to the voice of the customer and designed a true enterprise level solution. Our system can remotely control multiple drones from any security operations center using simple to operate cloud-based software. This makes LiveSky a cost-effective autonomous patrol drone as it hovers high above the scene providing actionable intelligence below and expanding the outer layer of security,” Senior Vice President of System Solutions Lew Pincus said.

LiveSky is powered supplied via a tether from a grid, vehicle, vessel or generator source, allowing it to fly for a nearly unlimited duration. Power travels up the tether to LiveSky while secure communications and video travel down the tether to ground stations or Ethernet networks. Since the LiveSky does not use radio frequency signals to operate, it can’t be jammed, hacked, spoofed or intercepted using counter-drone tech.

LiveSky is configured with Hoverfly’s new SkyBox and cloud-based remote operating software and ships with three design configurations to meet most outdoor security requirements. SkyBox can be mounted on rooftops, in the back of pick-up trucks or unmounted using the tether kit as its landing nest. The SENTRY enterprise system can be programmed to simultaneously control multiple drones in any number of locations with the click of a mouse.

In addition, the system is designed to meet IP-54 weather resistant standards and is equipped with a gimble for swapping payloads. Other features include RF secure 1080p video and data over the tether for jam-proof operation, pilot-less 5-button control, and precision landing.