Testing the Next Generation of Spray Drones
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Over the past decade, drones have found their way onto many farms for spot spraying applications. But Lukas Koch and the team at Heinen Brothers Agra Services in Kansas, think this is just the beginning. They have launched Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems to usher in the next generation of unmanned aircraft systems or UAS for agricultural spray applications.
Koch… “And the idea there is to bring together a bunch of large UAS you can't fly legally in other parts of the US because they're not approved by the FAA for that type of flight. We have secured a FAA test site and that allows us to fly airframes that you can't fly other places. And because we're putting it in a commercial environment and giving these manufacturers opportunities to test in hilly environments or flat environments, or wheat or corn or soybeans. The ones that are getting past, like the initial prototype stage and into a more, 'I think I'm getting very close to wanting to sell this to growers and start to generate some revenue' took to it really well. And they said we haven't heard of like a agricultural specific test site and we can take all of the crazy ideas we're coming up with and actually use it.”
Kelly Hills is hosting a grand opening on August 22nd.
