Do you think Simon would stock these?

[electrotor]

Nice.   :)




https://www.gov.uk/government/news/miniature-surveillance-helicopters-help-protect-front-line-troops

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130204/DEFREG01/302040004/Britain-Unveils-Photos-Nano-UAVs-Use-Afghanistan?odyssey=nav%7Chead

[Oatcake]

Wow! £20m for 160 units....that's £125k each!! They should have looked on amazon.

[FPVSteve]

£125,000 each, not bad work if you can get it

(£20,000,000 contract, for 160 units)

:o

[FPVSteve]

X4 FPV edition would have done the same job (at 100 quid) for 0.08% of the cost. And probably done it better too.

[Gundummy]

Got to love the military and their ability to spend millions on utter shite!

[FPVSteve]

Gundummy has the best sig on this forum, hands down!

[tomg]

Geez.. I've seen more impressive aircraft fall out of the bottom of a cornflakes packet!
Not even camo paint?

Ground station has that '80s Amstrad look.
:laugh:

[electrotor]

Military is always the same, You could buy these things private for couple of hundred quid. I used to maintain a mk44 mini gun that had an optical sight on it, I could buy it from the states for £300 but the company charged the Navy £15,000 a piece and they were crap.

A wiper blade for the Lynx helicopter made by Bosch, for me £23 at halfords, for the Navy £800. It had the same code imprinted on the rubber as for the BMW mini.

The list goes on and on and on and I bet these small pieces of shit that they now are buying will be as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Agreed the price appears hugely inflated but when you start to analyse where the money goes it's not quite so bad.

1. Profit - the companies who make these things are not altruists, in fact quite the opposite because they know they can milk defense departments. Companies which underprice are looked upon with suspicion.

2. Anything for aviation use has to be tested, approved and issued with the appropriate paperwork. This is going to cost money. I can get a cooling fan for an equipment rack from my local Maplin store but it does not have approval, test certs and other paperwork. It might be basically the same fan but I can't tell purchasing to nip down the road and get a few. They would not even be allowed in Stores.

3. Anything for military aviation has even more hoops to go through. That means more costs.

4. Companies will try to sell you more than you actually need. It's only the rubber blade on your wiper you actually need to replace as there is nothing wrong or worn about the metal support. Try getting just the rubbers these days, if you pardon the expression! And as for these aero-blades - there is even less in the manufacture yet they are double the price and people pay for them out of their own pockets. BTW don't you know Halfords is an expensive place to buy parts so if you buy from them you are doing pretty much the same as the Navy, albeit on a smaller budget.

5. It is highly unlikely that the unit price of these wee helicopters is simply the contract cost divided by the number of units. There will be a whole lot of product support and spares to go with that, as well as training and upgrades.

6. 160 is not a lot compared to say Eflite's sales of MSRs and the like, so unit cost is going to be higher.

7. They were developed by a Norwegian company. If you have ever been to Norway and gone out for a drink, you need a second drink to get over the cost of the first one.

;D

[electrotor]

Another thing, armed forces use draper tools but then pay through the roof on a tool that has no extra test made, break easily and very poor reliability. If i can remember correct a 1/4 inch drive ratchet was about £100 to replace and on average we would go through 6 a month on just the small arms department.

These tools were so unreliable that when we went on the iraq tour we were advised to purchase our own good quality tools as most of the time it was too dangerous to fly a chinook out to us just to drop cheap tools to maintain what kept us alive.

Draper???  :o
OK for the home mechanic doing occasional work. All our guys have their own Snap-On kits and the company buys Snap-On & Facom for shared use.
Draper??? I can hardly believe it.  :o

Pass me a drink. I'll even pay Norwegian prices. ;D

[electrotor]

if 20 members on here gor together spent a month to design and develop a superior product and to produce 20 of them each even after costs they'd be up better part of £980,000 each ...
then they can go to norway and drink as much as they like

Aitch :laugh:

Kickstarter challenge???  ;D

Here's a bit more about the actual model and base station so you know what you'll be up against.

http://www.proxdynamics.com/products/pd_100_prs/

Failing that get your job applications into these moneymaking companies. It might be quite cool to design and manufacture a nano UAV then retire on the profits.

http://www.marlboroughcomms.com/NewsArticle.aspx?data=d9IrLgGUAYJamTfnBX4tdQ%253d%253d

http://www.proxdynamics.com/news/the_black_hornet_featured_in_the_news/

[electrotor]

Some more stuff.

Flybarless
Carbon blades
Outrunner motor

That's gotta be worth a few quid alone. ;D

They only sell to governments & government agencies though. I expect these are the only people who can afford them anyway.

[Loopdreams]

The development of the PD-100 Black Hornet PRS started in April 2008

To be fair they would have been fairly impressive in 2008.  In 2013, not so much.

[wgt40w]

Personally - if the British Armed Forces 'need' something to "look around corners", I could save them a fortune.

For 'only' £90,000 each (includes slight profit) and in stock now -

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/400390832831?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&cbt=y

[electrotor]

Good basic solution AND free post & packing but they may not do international shipping to Afghanistan.  ;D

I would however point out a serious weakpoint in the design. What happens if the corner is more than 12" away or if there is more than one corner? I can feel an  escalation of costs creeping in and the price might go up to £30, or more. Cancel Trident.  ;D ;D

[wgt40w]

My company is developing a telescopic, triple-jointed version to address your point of view. Patents have been applied for and the target price will only show a modest increase on the Mk I to £98.000 - DELIVERED.