Crop Sprayer Develops New Drone

Kansas-based agriculture retailer Heinen Brothers Agra Services, known for their crop spraying services airplanes, is now expanding into the unmanned space through a new subsidiary called Kelly Hill's unmanned systems. This subsidiary is focused on developing cutting-edge aerial and ground based robotics, including drones to enhance return on investment for American farmers. CEO Lucas Koch.

“We're part of a couple unique programs with inside of the FAA, we have a UAS test range. We work through the University of Fairbanks Alaska for that. But it's codified by the the FAA. It's a program that started back in 2012 the FAA set up test sites, UAS test sites, or drone test sites, across the United States, in strategic areas. And they basically said, inside of this airspace, there's very little restrictions. So go create whatever you want. Go build whatever you want, drag it out of your garage, try to fly it if it crashes. That's part of building aircraft, but we want it done in these specific areas, with these specific entities, entities that we trust.”

Koch explains that the goal of Kelly Hill's unmanned systems is to create a product that is agriculture specific, done sub 100 feet.

“A lot of the other drones we talk about, these big autonomous systems, are all at 10,000 feet, and we're worried about them not hitting, you know, cargo planes or something.”

Koch says he plans to commercialize the new drone technology.