Drawing the Line on Drones

October 15, 2012

The International Association of Police Chiefs held its convention in San Diego earlier this month and one of the booths drawing a lot of attention belonged to a California company called AeroVironment, Inc.

It's in the business of building drones.

One of its models--the Raven--weighs less than five pounds and is the most popular military spy drone in the world. More than 19,000 have been sold. Another of its robot planes--the Switchblade--is seen as the drone of the future, one small enough to fit into a soldier's backpack.

But AeroVironment is zeroing in on a new market--police and fire departments too small to afford their own helicopters, but big enough to have a need for overhead surveillance. So in San Diego, it was showing off yet another model, this one called the Qube unmanned aircraft system.

The camera never blinks

AeroVironment likes to tout the Qube as just what a future-thinking police department needs--a flying machine that fits in the trunk of a cop car--it's less than five pounds and just three feet long--can climb as high as 500 feet and stays airborne as long as 40 minutes.