Watch Sony’s First Aerosense Drone Take Flight

Sony has given the world the first peek of its upcoming drone project. Cool though it is — the craft takes off vertically in this YouTube video — consumers shouldn’t get too excited as these drones are for enterprise and business usage rather than the gadget-buying public.

This is the first prototype is from Aerosense, a new joint venture Sony announced this summer in cooperation with Japanese automation specialist ZMP. The Wall Street Journal reports that future models will be capable of carrying up to 22 pounds in cargo — that’ll likely be cameras and other surveying equipment for shoots — and it will be able to fly for over two hours at a time, with a maximum speed of 106km/hour.

Aerosense is aiming to automate a number of processes currently handled by humans, such as measurement, surveying, observation and inspection. That might not sound like an area for drone tech, but these are far more than just toys and enterprise/business is already an area that DJI, arguably the world’s most prominent producer of drones (and a unicorn), has moved into. In line with growing demand, Aerosense chief Hisashi Taniguchi believes that the company’s revenues can reach JPY10 billion ($82 million) by 2020.