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.
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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
Pastrana prepares wood airplane propellers for drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Members of Alasoluciones prepare drones for test flights at an abandoned airport in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
(r-l) Aragon, Mykol Diaz and Pastrana working on drones on a 1958 Ford Fairlane at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Carmona (middle), and Alasoluciones members Mykol Diaz (right) and Aragon working on drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Pastrana holds drones pieces at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari. — AFP
Aragon (left) and Mykol Diaz place pieces of their drones in the trunk of a 1958 Ford Fairlane in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Four years into their project, the Alasoluciones engineers have managed to develop drones that function autonomously from takeoff to landing. — AFP
On some days, the team works in Aragon’s garage among the rice and garlic fields of San Nicolas de Bari, a village of some 20,000 inhabitants 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of Havana. — AFP
Alasoluciones members place drones on a 1958 Ford Fairlane at their workshop. The autonomous mechanical bird with its 1.3-meter (4.3-foot) wingspan is the creation of a group of engineers keen to develop cheap, local alternatives to foreign-made technology on the communist island under US sanctions since 1962. — AFP
Carmona launches a prototype drone into the air during a test of their drones at an abandoned airport in San Nicolas de Bari. — AFP
Pastrana shows a recycled plastic container with which he makes housings for the engines of Alasoluciones' drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Alasoluciones members prepare drones for test flights at an abandoned airport in San Nicolas de Bari. — AFP
Pastrana prepares wood airplane propellers for drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Alasoluciones members prepare drones for test flights at an abandoned airport in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
Alasoluciones members work on drones at their workshop in San Nicolas de Bari, Cuba. — AFP
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