Vision Aerial

Big news: Mobix Labs has announced its intention to acquire Vision Aerial. Our manufacturing stays in Montana. Our team stays in place. Our mission doesn't change -- we just have more behind it. Link in comments for details.

65 minutes at sea level. 45+ at elevation.

Those are honest numbers for operators flying in different terrains. Every drone platform will perform different at sea level vs elevation, and Vulcan SX still beats the competition regardless -- by more than 20 minutes in some cases.

When you're looking at spec sheets, ask where they measured flight time. Usually it's measured at sea level with no payload and in optimal conditions. Real missions aren't that. Vulcan SX is baselined at HQ in the mountains of Montana. If you don't understand the gap between the spec and the field, you could inadvertently be planning your mission inefficiently.

Have you flown Vulcan SX yet?

If you fly any kind of vertical drone missions, you know the descent problem is a real thing. Vulcan SX has superior performance when capturing data on the ascent AND descent, reducing your mission time.

Your launch site isn't always next to your truck.

See the article linked in the comments for a full breakdown of what you can expect when taking the Vulcan SX from case-open to wheels-down.

Not every mission has a convenient launch site, and honestly a lot of the most important ones don't.

We have operators flying over 3+ miles out just to reach their target area. The reality of a lot of infrastructure inspection and environmental work is that you're dealing with remote terrain, limited access roads, and conditions that require you to get in on foot and make it work with what you carried in.

When you're that far out, forward cruise efficiency becomes a lot more relevant than it sounds on a spec sheet. A platform that isn't efficient in forward flight is spending battery just getting to the job, and that's battery you don't get back once you're there. For missions like that, the tricopter geometry isn't a design detail, it's the reason the mission is feasible in the first place.

Some of the most demanding deployments our operators run look a lot like what you see here. Getting there is only half of it, you still have a job to do once you arrive. That's the environment we build for.

Tricopters have a unique advantage (especially in vertical inspections) that comes directly from their Y-shaped frame, and it's pretty simple once you see it!

Think about boats on a river. If you're following too closely behind another boat, you're fighting its wake the whole time. The water is choppy, you're getting tossed around, and it takes a lot more effort just to stay on course. Give yourself more distance, and everything smooths out. Rotors work in a similar way. When they're spaced farther apart, each one is pulling from cleaner air, instead of churning through the turbulence its neighbors are already kicking up.

On most multi-rotors, turbulence is manageable in forward flight (as we shared a couple of days ago, the Y-shape does provide superior cruise efficiency in forward flight). But in scenarios like vertical inspections, that turbulence really starts to matter. When a platform descends straight down, it's dropping back through the air it just pushed out of the way. Tighter rotor spacing means more of that disturbed air is getting caught up in the mix, and the platform has to work harder to compensate. That extra effort shows up as instability, and instability shows up in your data.

With more space between the rotors, a tricopter such as Vulcan SX doesn't have that problem to the same degree. Ascents and descents are just smoother, and when your descent is smooth, the footage you're collecting on the way down is actually worth keeping. For a lot of inspection workflows that means you're getting usable data in both directions on every pass, which is one less reason to go back and refly something you thought you already had.

Wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the engineering team behind the Vulcan SX. A lot goes into every platform before it ever leaves Bozeman, and this is the group making it happen. Appreciative doesn't really cover it, but it's a start. Thank you all for the work you do for us!

P.S.- check out those custom branded liveries 👀