Harris Aerial’s display at the Commercial UAV expo stressed the advantages of different sources powering the company’s various missions and heavy-lift capability.

“Our versatile H6 platform can convert between three different power formats: battery, gas-electric and hydrogen-electric,” company president Ben Harris said. “You can rapidly change from a fully electric setup to a gas-electric setup within five minutes. The fully electric flights are very efficient as well—40 minutes with useful payload.” 

The Carrier H6 Hybrid EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) is a multi-hour, high-endurance hexacopter powered by a 2-stroke gasoline generator. Offering versatile payloads, the system provides three compatible power formats. Among them, the Carrier H6 Hydrone is a hydrogen electric variant with an Intelligent Energy fuel call; the H6 Electric uses smart lithium power batteries for energy efficiency.

Harris Aerial is also known for its heavy lifting capability, especially offered by the H6 HL. “It has a 40-kilogram maximum payload,” Harris said, “our heaviest lifting multirotor today.”

The entire line has proven useful for utility inspection, agriculture and military work, and Harris also stressed its applicability for surveying. “It’s very popular in the survey industry,” Harris said, per its quicks power swaps and lengthy flight time. 

“LiDAR data collection—more flight time, more data. Surveyors want to be in there collecting data; they don’t want to be on the ground swapping batteries.”

As for range, Harris pointed to a recent success. “We did a 77-mile corridor scan. That was cool. That was with the hybrid EFI.”

Harris also spent time walking the expo floor. “I’m excited to see new products here. Lots of interesting controllers coming up that I’ve been looking at.”