Not Vaporware After All: “ProDrone” Has a Tale to Tell

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew follows up with Nicolia Wiles of the Global Drone Union (GDU), the company formerly known as “ProDrone.” Recently, there has been discussion in the community that the Byrd, its ultra-compact folding heavy-lift quadcopter, was vaporware: it had not shipped on time and the company was not communicating with its customers. It turns out that it had, in fact, become embroiled in an international copyright dispute with another company that also claimed the name “ProDrone.” The conflicted prevented the company from shipping its products and even publicly disclosing the cause of the delay. Rather than continue the dispute and leave its customers waiting, it abandoned the “ProDrone” name and and became GDU. Its drones are expected to begin shipping no later than May 15.