Lehmann Aviation, the French maker of professional micro civil unmanned aircraft vehicles - called UAVs - is launching the LA300. The automatic machine is for professional aerial images and uses the newest, highest resolution mobile phone camera - the Nokia 1020. That phone features a 41 megapixel camera - considered the highest resolution in the mobile phone industry.

The LA300 is fully automatic and requires no piloting skills or training. The user simply programs the flight path on any Windows 8 tablet, transmit the data to the UAV using wi-fi and launch the machine by hand. After a flight of up to 30 minutes, the aerial robot will automatically land in a chosen location.

The machine is designed for professional applications including surface and volume calculation, detection of damaged crops, animals and farm monitoring. This is the first UAV to use a mobile phone for professional imaging. With this system it is easy for the operator to conduct a whole flight, prepare the mission and control and geotag images. For flight preparation and mission control the user simply has to draw on a touchscreen tablet the field area, enter waypoints and Lehmann's OperationCenter software will automatically generate missions and program the UAV.

After mounting the Nokia Lumia 1020 on the wing and launching the LA300 by hand, the user just waits until it automatically flies over the chosen waypoints and lands. At the end of the mission the user can easily process all the images in their favorite software. Price for the machine is $6,350 and includes two wings, one electronic flying platform, power system and a set of accessories. The OperationCenter under Windows 8 is included in the kit. The Nokia Lumia 1020 and GoPro or Windows 8 tablet are not included in the kit. Deliveries start at the end of September 2013. Learn more by visiting www.lehmannaviation.com.

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