AggieAir Demonstrates New GreatBlue Aircraft at “Drones in Ag” Day

10/8/2020 — USU AggieAir, a research lab at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, and USU Aviation Technology recently held their "Drones and Ag" demonstration day at the USU Agricultural Experimentation Center. The event, which invited members of the public to attend with proper COVID-19 precautions, featured a demonstration of AggieAir's newest aircraft, GreatBlue, and showcased the future of drones in agriculture.

GreatBlue is a Hybrid VTOL/Fixed wing drone that allows the team to take off and land vertically, while also giving more than 2.5 hours of fixed-wing flight time. With the capacity for an 11 lb payload, GreatBlue can also carry all of AggieAir's current sensors and payloads, allowing longer flight times and ranges for remote sensing applications now and in the future. For agricultural applications, GreatBlue collects images of fields during flight, which are then pieced together by algorithms to help farmers manage their crops health and water usage.

The demonstration, which was also live streamed to the public, is available below.

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Contact: Cal Coopmans, AggieAir Director, cal.coopmans@usu.edu

Additional Media: Utah State Today | The Herald Journal