As was the case with Boeing, Lufthansa It has also just announced that it will start using drones for visual recognition of possible imperfections and damage in the outer zone of its aircraft. To achieve this, the company has just announced an agreement with the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI. This agreement will result in the creation of a new drone capable of doing this work completely autonomously.
One of the drones chosen by Lufthansa has been the DJI Matrice 100, a professional quadcopter whose price ranges between 3.600 euros for the most basic version and 8.000 euros that it can reach if it is equipped with high-definition cameras or other kinds of extras. On this, a specific model will be developed based on the joint experience that both companies have in terms of the manufacture of drones and the repair and maintenance of commercial aircraft.
The DJI Matrice 100 has been chosen for Lufthansa's maintenance work
Basically what they want at Lufthansa is a drone capable of flying over one of their aircraft completely autonomously, during this flight. take photos of the entire fuselage paying special attention to the most sensitive areas prone to damage. Once these photographs have been taken, they will be processed by a specific software capable of create a 3D digital model of the aircraft that can be reviewed by an expert.
As you are surely thinking, one of the main advantages that Lufthansa will achieve when using this type of device can be found in the savings in time and costs for the company as well as in worker safety. As a detail, thanks to the use of the DJI Matrice 100, this work will be done in just over 10 or 15 minutes.