Motherboard TV: Drone On

By Brian Anderson

When Chris Barter, program manager for the Datron Scout micro unmanned aerial vehicle, isn’t surfing one of his favorite low-key spots near Oceanside, California, he’s selling his military-grade spy drone to standing militaries and law enforcement agencies across the world.

When Alan Sanchez and Sam Kelly, two young engineers with 3D Robotics, the open-source hobbyist drone company spun off of Chris Anderson’s non-profit community DIYDrones, aren’t tinkering in 3D’s charming drone-punk lab, they can be found at a neighboring field. Blissed out under the late afternoon sun, they pilot a pair of tricked-out RC aircraft—a small quadcopter and a more traditional glider plane, both outfitted with 3D’s custom autopilot—in lazy circles, mindful of small manned airplanes passing through the same airspace. Further off in the distance, a pack of Apache helicopters thumps past.

When Anderson, for his part, isn’t overseeing the entire operation with his business partner, Jordi Muñoz, shuttling back and forth between 3D’s research and development centers in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, he’s busy working his day job as editor of Wired. Wait—scratch that. Anderson just left Wired to focus on drones full time.

“It was one of those follow-your-heart things,” Anderson tells me over email. “The company is booming and we’d just raised a big VC round. I felt that this was my next big thing.”