Futaba Corp.

The National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience and partners on the 25th conducted a demonstration test in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, to see whether a drone could fly stably in strong winds and heavy rain. The test was carried out at the institute's large-scale rainfall testing facility under three conditions: rainfall of 100 millimeters per hour with no wind, the same 100 millimeters with wind speeds of 12 meters per second, and 300 millimeters with wind speeds of 12 meters per second. In all cases, the drone was confirmed to be able to fly while maintaining a constant altitude. The drone used was manufactured by the electronics company Futaba Corporation and is capable of stable flight even in wind speeds of 15 to 17 meters per second, but this was reportedly the first time it had been flown in an environment with rainfall of 100 millimeters or more per hour. Naoki Sakai, a senior researcher at the institute, said, "We hope to work toward using this for assessing situations during disasters in the future."