So - if you are looking for an alternative to a Chinese drone - click the link …
I hope one day we have an all U.K built UAV / Drone…
Hmmm.
Nice thought, especially if open source and crowdfunded but …
Sinclair, Dyson, Amstrad, Ministry of Defence … ![]()
Sad I know, but hopefully we are falling out of love with China…
Like the look of the Vantage Robotics Vesper. Bet the prices are scary due to “military grade”.
How much of the UK market would move away from DJI if there was a UK built alternative. If the marketing people knew that figure, it might inspire a manufacturer to get on board.
For those of us with an interest in drone technology, either commercially or as a hobby, it will look like it’s a vibrant market, but realistically, from a retail point of view its heyday has passed.
Only six years or so ago it appeared that everybody and their brother were endeavouring to put something on the market but now it’s primarily DJI followed by Yuneec and Parrot with the odd other manufacturer making a splash at CES never to be heard of again a month later. Even once prominent retailers such as Firstpersonview are now absent from the market place, which I find to be really depressing as Simon was always my first stop for all my build projects. Which also highlights the fact that very few people build larger craft these days and possibly explains why the likes of Quadcopters.co.uk, UnmannedTech, and BuildYourOwnDrone, are now concentrating on the smaller race and freestyle models as opposed to the larger DJI and Tarot builds. There is one very notorious UK manufacturer, though they claim their production is being done in China, but they’re currently embroiled in a fraud investigation.
If truth be told unless large scale manufacturing of anything electronic is being done in places such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc, where labour costs are so low, there’s very little profit to be made. You can use the guitar industry as an example. If you compare the prices of an Epiphone Les Paul made in China next to a similar spec’d American made Les Paul made in Gibson’s American factory (Gibson owns Epiphone) the price difference is great. And ironically many are now saying that the quality of Epiphone, reliability and finish, is exceeding that of guitars currently coming out of the American factory.
Yes, the UK used to be a centre of excellence for all manufactured things but now we are like the USA where the biggest industry is the service industry.
Nidge.