Flyability, the Swiss firm finest recognized for making drones that may safely stumble upon issues because of its distinctive cage design, simply gave its flagship Elios 3 drone one thing that lots of its opponents can’t match: probably limitless flight time.
The corporate this week unveiled the Elios 3 Tether Energy Unit, a wall-pluggable floor energy system that sends juice up a 50-meter Kevlar-reinforced cable. That permits steady operation with out mid-mission battery swaps. The announcement coincides with the Business UAV Expo in Las Vegas this week, the place the Flyability tether system made its public debut.
“Our tether presents steady energy, so the drone might fly ceaselessly,” Eloise McMinn Mitchell, Flyability’s vertical advertising and marketing supervisor stated in an interview with The Drone Lady. After all, there are sensible limitations: pilots normally want a break after half-hour, and the onboard reminiscence maxes out after about two hours of information seize.
By comparability, Flyability’s lately launched high-capacity battery presents as much as 17 minutes of flight. The tether unit doesn’t change batteries — drones nonetheless ship with them by default — however for industries that demand hours of nonstop information assortment, tethering is now on the desk.
Tackling the tether drawback
Drones on tethers aren’t new (Cyphy famously included tethers of their drones, which had been finally acquired by FLIR). Alas, tethers are notoriously awkward to fly in advanced environments (like darkish, underground tunnels, the place Flyability’s drones had been made to fly in). Flyability claims it’s solved that with an anti-flip swivel that connects the tether to the drone. The swivel permits the cable to mount from any angle with out destabilizing the plane, so pilots don’t have to obsess over line rigidity.
“The drone flies as if it had been untethered,” Mitchell stated. “Rivals don’t but have an equal characteristic, which suggests their pilots continuously have to trace the tether’s place to keep away from crashes.”
The cable itself is 50 meters (164 toes) lengthy, Kevlar-reinforced with a 50-kilogram tensile power, and designed to outlive hundreds of abrasion cycles in opposition to sharp edges. It’s not the longest tether in the marketplace, however Flyability emphasizes its sturdiness and portability. The unit packs right into a wheeled case and helps 100–240V AC enter, making it globally suitable.
Why tether, why now?
Mitchell says the push to construct a Flyability tether got here from buyer ache factors. New drone pilots typically discover managing flight time hectic, and mission-critical functions like ultrasonic thickness (UT) testing demand longer flights. Flyability launched its UT payload in 2024, however battery limits capped its usefulness.
“The tether was our lacking piece within the non-destructive testing market,” Mitchell stated. “It makes the Elios 3 totally prepared for difficult NDT missions.”
Oil and fuel is already a key vertical, and Flyability lately ran exams with Shell on an offshore platform. Regardless of the Elios being designed for indoor inspection, the tether enabled it to map difficult-to-access constructions on the underside of a deck. Mining, energy era, maritime and utility infrastructure are additionally anticipated to be robust adopters.
Autonomy, ROI, and what’s subsequent past the Flyability tether
Whereas Flyability isn’t disclosing pricing of the Flyability tether, Mitchell stated it’s positioned as a premium accent fairly than a default. Present Elios 3 customers can add it to their kits, and new consumers can customise bundles that blend and match tether models, high-capacity batteries, and payloads.
Flyability argues the ROI case is simple: tethering reduces downtime, hastens inspections, and removes human employees from hazardous confined areas.
“We’re anticipating an enormous influence, particularly when inspecting massive property like ship hulls and tanks the place hours of flight are required,” Mitchell stated.
The tether additionally performs into Flyability’s long-term purpose of extra autonomous operations. With flight time constraints gone, the corporate can deal with scaling up its analytics software program. Future developments might embrace instruments to match inspection information throughout flights.
The larger image
In a market the place uptime equates to security and price financial savings, the Flyability tether’s pitch of “limitless” flight is certain to resonate.
The Elios 3 tether shall be on show this week in Las Vegas on the Business UAV Expo and once more at different 2025 drone occasions reminiscent of in Milan at GasTech. There are additionally regional “DroneDays” demos deliberate later this yr in Chile and Australia.
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