Life-saving Draganfly Wings Into New Adventure with Suite Launch

A drone company recognized for saving lives is hoping a new suite of professionally piloted, commercial UAV services will launch the company into a rarified atmosphere as one of the top companies in the drone biz.

Draganfly Innovations, a subsidiary of TRACE Live Network, announced the new package of products and service last week that will couple a team of experienced pilots and drone experts with a suite of “multiple, changeable payload systems including, high resolution color camera systems, FLIR thermal imaging and advanced, multi-spectral data acquisition systems,” according to a company statement.

As reported in DRONELIFE in 2014, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum added the Draganflyer X4-ES to its vertical flight exhibit in commemoration of it being the first unmanned aerial helicopter responsible for saving a human life. On May 9^th 2013, an X4-ES equipped with thermal imaging technology helped rescuers locate the critically injured driver of a car following a midnight crash. After two hours of combing the area fruitlessly, officials released the unmanned X4-ES which quickly located the victim.

“Commercial use of UAVs is currently experiencing unprecedented growth as it offers an exceptionally cost effective way to collect unique aerial data which can, in turn, be used to save time, money and live,” Draganfly Innovations Inc. founder and president, Zenon Dragan said in a press release.

“We have seen a surge in requests for our specialist operators to carry out aerial data acquisition across numerous industries and felt it was time to offer these services on a commercial scale,” he added.

The company is looking to continue expansion into aerial photography, industrial inspection, agriculture and public safety — “working with various agencies to deliver the data type and quality required for Collision documentation, crime scene documentation, search and rescue, tactical operations, detailed mapping, aerial 3D scanning
and data modeling,” the company press release added.

Draganfly recently obtained a Transport Canada-issued Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) for a good portion of the country as well as an FAA 333 exemption to operate commercially throughout the United States.