Yes, that was a drone over downtown Nashua yesterday, reports the Nashua Telegraph:
Pembroke-based JBI Helicopter, which provides helicopter service for Eversource in New Hampshire to make regularly scheduled inspection flights, brought one of its unmanned aerial vehicles for a part-demonstration, part-inspection exercise over lines near downtown Nashua. Carol Burke, manager of transmission operations, said Thursday’s exercise was a combination inspection and evaluation of JBI’s ability to work with the unmanned aircraft.
The story mentions a big drawback to current technology:
The flight lasted about 15 minutes, about the maximum time one battery will allow. Johnson brought the aircraft back to a smooth landing on the ground to swap out a fresh battery, which was about the size of a brick, for another flight.
Those visions of drones flying over hundreds of miles of back-country power lines? Maybe not quite yet.
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