After teasing it at CES 2021, Sony is completely pulling back the curtain on their 1st drone: the Airpeak S1. In case you thought this one was gonna be for the Mavic crowd, guess again. This is for the higher-end Inspire crowd w/ a $9,000 price tag on it.
Now the one of the few things to separate this from the other drones is that this will work w/ Sony’s mirorrless cameras. This includes the A7S III, 8K-capable Alpha 1, and the FX3 as they will sit on a special version of the Gremsy T3 gimbal that’s not included BTW. Another big feature is their stability & wind-resistance as it has been tested in winds up to 44.7mph. It also has 5 sets of stereo cameras + an infrared rangefinder to help w/ obstacle avoidance w/o any satellite reception.
Now this isn’t an FPV drone but it is on the faster side of things. Sony quotes the Airpeak at doing 0-50 in 3.5 seconds w/ a top speed of 55.9mph. With that said, Sony touts this w/ 12 minutes of battery life w/ a camera & 22 minutes w/o one.
They have their own included controller called the Airpeak Flight. Which is app-based but only works on iOS/iPadOS at the moment. It can be handled by a single operator but allows for dual-operator mode. No word as of yet for how long the range of the controller will be.
So the Airpeak S1 is due out this fall. It will include 2 pair of propellers, the controller, 2 batteries, and a charger for its $9,000 asking price. However, it will be offering a service plan to handle damages at launch as well.
Now this wasn’t the price I was expecting but its still impressive nonetheless – especially for their 1st offering. I can imagine Sony coming out w/ a more affordable version under the Airpeak line w/ another number behind it.
