Red Cat Holdings Inc. has announced that Fat Shark, a wholly owned subsidiary, and Skypersonic, the manufacturer of the Skycopter UAV, partnered to complete a long distance drone flight remotely. 

During the flight, a pilot located in Orlando, Florida controlled a drone flying in Detroit, Michigan. The flight integrated Fat Shark's new digital technology, "Shark Byte" with Skypersonic's Skycopter and remote pilot software system. 

The pilot's flight instructions to the drone were transmitted through Skypersonic's servers, which are located in Italy. The companies believe this flight represents the first commercial completion of a remote flight similar to how drones are used by military forces.

“The ability to control the flight of a drone from thousands of miles away should accelerate the commercial adoption of drone technology, expand the number of business services that can be provided by drones, and lower travel and training costs for companies deploying drones.” explains Jeff Thompson, CEO of Red Cat.

“The combination of our recently launched Shark Byte digital system and Skypersonic's patent pending software platform provides video resolution that will enable pilots to navigate more safely and execute commercial flights that were not possible with an analog system.”

Greg French, founder and chief technology officer of Fat Shark, adds, “we were excited to work with Skypersonic to test the limits of our new digital technology. The combination of our Shark Byte 720p HD digital system and Skypersonic's latency-compensating flight assistance technology enabled the pilot to fly faster and more skillfully than expected.”