Networx3 Drones teams up with Avro Heritage Museum to bring Greater Manchester’s proud aviation history to life
Networx3 Drones have been working with museum bosses to tell the story of the site’s 90-year contribution to the aviation industry.
Networx3 Drones commercial drone pilots Ian Ashworth and Caroline Earnshaw spent the day at the Stockport museum flying the £32,000 Elios 2 and £18,00 Matrice 210 V2 RTK drones in, under and over some of the 30,000 exhibits including the cockpit of a Vulcan and Lancaster Bomber.
The resulting bird’s eye footage will now be used in a promotional video as the museum launches a multi-million pound fundraising campaign to expand the museum.
Museum trustee Ian Lomax said: “It’s very fitting that the latest technology in drone flight is being used to promote the proud history of flight that our museum seeks to protect and preserve for future generations.”
The Elios 2 drone is encased in a cage, which is the size and shape of a football, and is designed to view locked away spaces such as holes in the ground, loft cavities, drains, as well as dangerous structures, warehouses and contaminated buildings.
But when deployed at AVRO, alongside the DJI Mavic Pro 2 Enterprise drone with its 4K quality video camera, they were able to capture exhibits such as the VC10 and Nimrod cockpits from above; get a pilot’s eye view inside the aircraft which are currently out of bounds due to Covid 19 social distancing restrictions and give a sneaky peek at areas of the planes normally out of bounds to visitors.
As well as recording an hour of HD footage the drones were also able to take hundreds of photographs which will be turned into a high-detail and high-resolution orthomosiac map.
Networx3 Drones is now producing the most accurate 3D maps available in the UK by combining the world’s first adaptive flight planning app for commercial drone missions with data analytics.
The photographs taken by the DJI Mavic Pro 2 Enterprise drone will create a 100% accurate survey of the land where the museum’s new hangar will be built.
The museum has a wishlist of aircraft it would like to see housed in the extension including a Nimrod maritime aircraft and Avro Shackleton.
Mr Ashworth said: “It was fascinating flying our drones in and around the aircraft because they’re seen from a completely new perspective. We were more than happy to give up our time for free to help the museum tell its story in a new way. We wish them all the very best with their fundraising.”