Flying Vehicles Start Working on Farms; FAA Approved

An eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) maker has begun officially sanctioned commercial farming operations in California.

Guardian Agriculture has started operating four of its electric aerial vehicles (EAV) for spraying crops in the Salinas Valley region of California.

The Guardian EAV systems are fully programmable and repeatable.

One flying vehicle can cover up to 60 acres per hour and can carry a 200-pound payload with a combined tank fill and charging time of less than one minute, according to the company.

Guardian recently received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its EAVs nationwide, believed to be the first commercially authorized eVTOL in the U.S. 

"This is a watershed moment for sustainable farming and a giant leap forward for eVTOL technology," said Guardian founder and CEO Adam Bercu. "While several companies are developing eVTOL technologies, we are now the only one that has both secured FAA approval to operate commercially nationwide, and that's actually started flying missions on behalf of paying customers."

Guardian's eVTOL platform has more than $100 million in customer orders, according to the company, with EAV prices starting at $119.000.

The autonomous, electric, aerial crop protection system was designed specifically for large-scale agriculture. 

The six-year-old Massachusetts-based company raised more than $20 million in a series A funding round earlier this year.

The personal aerial vehicle created by Ryse Aero Technologies also can be converted into a pilotless vehicle carrying a tank and boom for crop spraying on farms, as previously covered here in IoT World Today.

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