DJI spray drones are quite an old idea, a much better value than Hylio drones, and very popular in China. They're especially favored in smaller-acerage targeted

DJI spray drones are quite an old idea, a much better value than Hylio drones, and very popular in China. They're especially favored in smaller-acerage targeted application scenarios like orchards as well as specialty applications like terrace farms where tractors are less efficient, but they work OK on large-scale fields as well. An Agras T50 is $25k. That's not that bad compared to a normal tractor and really, really cheap compared to an Air Tractor, especially when you start considering wet cost. The big issue preventing you from seeing more of these the US is regulatory. Right now, agricultural drones are a huge pain to fly, although the situation has been improving: * The drone needs both an operator and a visual observer. * The drone needs to be within line of sight (this is easier when it's huge, but still a significant limitation). * The operator needs an FAA Part 107 license. Until this year they also needed a second-class medical as part of the overweight waiver process, but now third-class medicals are OK. * The operator needs a Part 137 spray license. * The drone needs to be on a special list to get a 49 USC Section 44807 exception (basically, a carve-out to Part 137 allowing certain drones above 55lb to be used for agriculture). Until recently, this process was horrible and required specific authorization, experimental certificates, and all kinds of waivers, but thankfully it's been cleaned up. Hylio got a waiver to allow up to 3 simultaneous flights and no visual observer. If more of these exemptions are issued (or the overall regulation loosens), I suspect spray drones will actually become quite popular. Even with the current pilot limitations, it's already possible to run an agricultural spray business using DJI drones that easily beats traditional crop dusting in terms of price-per-acre. The main issue is acres available, since the current setup is so inefficient - there just isn't enough supply to really disrupt the crop dusting market when it comes to large megafarms. Once a single operator can observe autonomous flight from tens of drones at once, things will become quite competitive - you can buy a lot of T50s for the price of an Air Tractor. Fixed-wing spray drones are an even better idea than inefficient quadcopters, and I look forward to seeing more of these designs, like the Pyka Pelican, hit the market as well.