Sky Machines
Being the true family business start-up that it was, it was not long before Nathan and Amanda Roy's kitchen was full of UAV speed controllers, motors and frames. In fact, Amanda quickly picked up the job of designing and making the bag that would attach to the underside of the UAV to hold the insects and allow for a smooth distribution flow. Amanda produced several iterations of the design before settling on the version that worked best for the initial commercial applications.
Meanwhile Nathan got busy on designing his now patented spreader. Mounted at the bottom of the bag, the spreader produces an even distribution of insects whilst maintaining very low mortality rates. The prop wash from Nathan's home-built, eight propeller UAV helps make sure the insects penetrate deep into the crop foliage.
It was not all fun and playing with toys however. In order to legally operate, Nathan had to negotiate the brand new playground of aviation regulation. As well as working closely with CASA to make sure he himself met all the requirements of a UAV commercial pilot, he also had to convince them that dropping insects from the sky was a perfectly acceptable use of UAV technology.
Aerobugs