Rarely do all five “sharks” from ABC’s reality TV show Shark Tank invest in the same company, but the drone company XCraft had all five investors wanting in. The two founders from XCraft raised $1.5 million at a $6 million valuation after appearing on the show. It’s safe to say that the sharks see the value in STEM!
XCraft currently has two drone projects going on. The first is the X PlusOne, a hybrid drone that can take off and hover as a multi-rotor drone and then switch into fixed wing mode for flight speeds of over 100 km/h (60+ mph), this drone is available in three different models through the XCraft store with prices ranging from $1,549 to $2,199.
The second drone is the PhoneDrone, which is currently on Kickstarter and has raised over $150,000 with an initial goal of $100,000. It’s a drone that uses your smartphone as a brain, turning it into an autonomous aerial camera. Since the Phone Drone technology is actually in the smartphone — including its navigation and sensors, the Phone Drone is a lot cheaper than a full drone model, with an expected retail cost of $250.
This is an inspiring example of the growth opportunity in the autonomous systems industry. In fact, a recent study by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) estimates that more than 100,000 new jobs will be created within the industry by 2025. The overall economic impact on the country is forecasted to reach $82 billion in the same period.
In pursuit of our goal to prepare our students for the jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities of the future, we’ve partnered with Aerodrome LLC, a “teaching airport.”
Through their network of teaching airports, Aerodrome provides Base 11 students and academic partners with the training needed to become FAA certified UAS (drone) pilots and maintenance technicians.
Check out our Autonomous Systems Program to learn how you could get real-world, hands-on experience in unmanned aircraft systems.