The newest tool in Florida Power & Light‘s storm-ready toolbox is a storm drone that has a wingspan that is slightly greater than that of a Cessna. This fixed-wing drone has the ability to fly for 1,000 miles at a time and will cost the utility’s customers an astounding $1.2 million.

The utility company thinks that by using this fixed-wing drone, known as FPLAir One, to examine storm damage throughout the state of Florida, they would be able to simplify restoration work and bring electricity back on after an outage more quickly.

Without this storm drone, FPL employees would have to examine damage from bucket trucks or by utilizing smaller drones to gain a birds-eye perspective. The FPLAir One sports the company’s colors blue, green, and orange, and weighs up to 1,800 pounds.

Both approaches suffer from limitations. In the first place, it is not possible to carry out the inspection task remotely. Secondly, it is not possible to carry out this surveillance in a…

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Source: dronexl.co