The unmanned, beyond visual line of sight drone flight was 77 miles long and took less than three hours
T-Mobile US and Valmont, an agricultural equipment and infrastructure manufacturer, announced the completion of an unmanned, 77-mile beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operation. The Harris Aerial H6E drone travelled non-stop flight from Childress to Aspermont, Texas and was equipped with a T-Mobile 5G-connected Sony A7RM5 camera.
T-Mobile 5G provided live data transfer throughout the entire flight, even though much of it took place over rural areas. The trip took less than three hours, which according to the companies, is three times faster than “conventional methods.” Further, they stated that the Valmont drone inspection teams used less than one-fourth gallon of fuel per hour. As it traveled, the drone inspected critical infrastructure such as power lines, railroads and bridges.
“Traditional methods for infrastructure monitoring typically require extensive manpower, manned aircraft operations or ground-based inspections, which involve significant safety risks, more time and more money,” the companies said in a statement, adding later that by using 5G, Valmont’s drone inspection service can “preemptively [monitor] infrastructure sites with greater accuracy,” which will “help prevent malfunctions and breakdowns before they have a chance to have a widespread impact.”
Notably, the flight demonstrated a new average distance of UAS inspections, pushing it from less than 20 miles per day to more than 60. “Range has been a hurdle in the drone inspection space, until now,” said Jake Lahmann, UAS manager at Valmont Industries. “To be able to get this kind of range in a single drone flight is really going to revolutionize the way the industry approaches infrastructure inspections.”
In 2022, T-Mobile US was selected by Lucid Drone Technologies to provide IoT connectivity and management for a fleet of industrial spraying drones. At the time, the companies also noted future plans to leverage T-Mobile’s 5G network to fly drones beyond line-of-sight and power more data-intensive capabilities like video streaming. And year prior, the carrier announced a partnership with The Drone Racing League, outfitting a drone at a baseball event in Dyersville, Iowa with a 5G module that live streams video from the drone’s point of view.
Valmont’s drone ambitions include offering drone-in-a-box (DiaB) services nationwide in 2024. The service will allow anyone in need of aerial inspection services to simply order and unbox a drone while a Valmont pilot flies it remotely from “virtually anywhere in the U.S.”
