Canberra company licensed for flying drones

Megan Doherty

A Canberra company is the first local operation to get approval to fly unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones” commercially.

The mother-and-son operation has approval through the Civil Aviation Safety Authority after an involved process that included undertaking flight training with the manufacturer in Canada.

CASA confirmed there were only 39 licences issued for unmanned aircraft systems in Australia including to White Knight Unmanned Aerial Systems Pty Ltd from the ACT.

Chief controller and managing director of the company, Brett White, said it would be operating a Canadian-made DraganFlyX4P, which was 0.8 metres in diameter, weighed less than 2.5kg and was powered by a lithium polymer battery.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/canberra-company-licensed-for-flying-drones-20130613-2o5za.html#ixzz2W4oMFMUu