Cuban engineers’ dreams take flight with home-grown drones

Carmona (middle), and Alasoluciones members Mykol Diaz (right) and Aragon working on drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. Alasoluciones is the first Cuban SME to commercialise their autonomous drone creations, of which 80% of the components are hand-made, and provide services in state and private sectors, in Cuba and abroad. — AFP

SAN NICOLAS DE BARI, Cuba: Disguised as a sparrowhawk, and convincingly mimicking its predatory cry, a drone made of wood, scrap metal and plastic disperses birds at a Cuban airfield.

From afar one could be fooled: soaring and swooping with its 1.3-meter (4.3-foot) wingspan, the mechanical bird flies autonomously for an hour at a time, and boasts impressive, if somewhat stiff plumage.