An overview of the pre launch testing Freefly completed to ensure Alta X performs to spec
The team at Freefly comes from a cinema background and spent the first decade of their career onset filming in some of the most demanding circumstances available. It was from this period and all the failures we endured (at the worst times) that we developed the testing philosophy that drives Freefly today.
We like to test early, test frequently, and test harder than any of our customers will. We push our drones and gimbals to the limits (and often destroy them) in order to make sure you can rely on them when time is short and the light is beautiful.
We sweat the details so you don't have to!
Freefly typically follows an product development workflow with the following stages. We have developed this process over the last decade to help ensure adequate effort goes into each product we build at each of the critical stages of development.
This is a very rough prototype that the team will build over the course of 1 -2 weeks to quickly derisk any of the items that we are very worried about with our design intent. For Alta X this was a flat plate carbon chassis mule that we built over the course of a week designed to ensure flight performance and tuning.
This is the first prototype that is based upon our intended design. Often times we will rapid prototype parts and machine parts for this round in house. At this stage we are not sure if many of our designs will work and we want to get them built and testing as quickly as possible to figure where we missed. All the materials should be fully functional and testable.
For this stage we mainly want to know if we can build a machine that meets all functional requirements
We usually build 10 to 20 units during the EV test period
This stage will feature one configuration that worked well from our EV testing period and be built with hard tools with production processes that are being refined for mass production.
We want to know if we can build machines that meet all functional, and cosmetic requirements
This might be 20 to 50 units
Now we are scaling! Can we build machines that achieve our functional, cosmetic, and manufacturing metrics consistently? Are we able to build machines that repeatedly delight our customers in a systematic fashion?
100+ units
Here are the test Freefly ran prior to launching Alta X
All the tests that were completed (except for a few confidential ones) during the development of Alta X are listed in a google sheet here
This overview sheet will tell you key information about the test, who completed the test, and the test result. If you want to understand the test in more detail you can review each test plan individually by following the link for each test.
How each Alta X is built!
You can see how an Alta X is assembled and tested in this visual diagram
Certifications for Alta X
Alta X is certified in Canada for Advanced Operations under the Transport Canada RPAS Safety Assurance requirements
Alta X DIU Blue Package (SKU: 950-00113-Blue)
Before the launch of Alta X the Freefly team completed over 500 hours of flight and simulated flight testing. The summary and details for these flights can be found here.
For these test the team at Freefly pushed the Alta X harder than we think a customer would ever imagine. This meant stressing the machine to the limit in order to ensure robust performance in the field.
Freefly also leveraged a small group of external beta testers during this phase to ensure they were pleased with the Alta X performance. We did have a difficult time getting the test machines back from several of these testers (Ahem Pat Weir) 😂
