Wingcopter, a German drone manufacturer, is expanding its offerings beyond cargo delivery to encompass long-range beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) LiDAR surveying solutions. Their flagship Wingcopter 198, currently undergoing FAA type certification, will integrate advanced laser scanning and camera systems to enable efficient, high-quality data acquisition. This system boasts a remarkable range, allowing for the surveying of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) of linear infrastructure in a single mission, carrying a 4.5 kg (10 lbs) sensor payload.
The new application, showcased at GEO Week in Denver, Colorado, offers significant advantages. It achieves a point density of up to 570 points per square meter, with sensor accuracy of 10 mm and precision of 5 mm – exceeding current market capabilities. A single 42-minute BVLOS mission can cover up to 10.3 square kilometers (2,560 acres). This capability is ideal for various applications including power line, pipeline, railway, and road inspections, as well as mapping challenging terrains and vegetation.
Ansgar Kadura, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Wingcopter, points out: “After years of developing and relentless testing, we have frozen the Wingcopter 198 in the configuration that is currently undergoing FAA type certification in the United States. The drone has unique payload and range characteristics, and with a proven product lifetime of more than 1,000 flight hours, it is one of the most reliable long-range eVTOL UAS on the market. Based on this configuration, we are developing a solution to address the field of high-quality LiDAR surveying and integrating the best commercially available sensor systems. I look forward to discussing with surveyors and learning about their vision for an ideal BVLOS LiDAR surveying drone.”
Early interest is strong, particularly in Brazil, where Wingcopter’s partner Synerjet plans to deploy fleets of the Wingcopter 198 for surveying. Augustinho Simoes, Synerjet’s Director of Drone Operations and Development, details a custom application featuring a high-end LiDAR sensor with a 100-degree field of view and a 2.4 MHz pulse repetition rate. The sensor’s unique three-directional scanning (nadir, +10 degrees forward, and -10 degrees backward) ensures comprehensive data capture, even in complex environments like narrow canyons and dense vegetation. This capability will support a wide range of applications, from asset inspections and vegetation monitoring to mapping diverse terrains.
