Three unmanned helicopters were shipped to Japan on a special Nippon Airways flight from France recently to monitor the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The €40,000 order was received by Hélipse’s American partner, Rotomotion, from General Electric, mandated by the Japanese. Each is capable of up to one hour flight time with a range of 30 kilometres on autopilot.

The helicopters are all equipped with radiation sensors, infrared thermometers and cameras. The largest, the HE300 model has a large-load carrying capacity of greater than 20 kg. It was designed to run specific kinds of missions, including those requiring items such as a photographic camera, a cooled thermal camera, various types of sensors for measuring and/or surveying work or a tank for spraying etc.