Intel's first commercial drone lands in the US

Intel began promoting its first commercial drone in the U.S. this week, as it seeks to carve out a place for itself in the fast-expanding market. The Falcon 8 drone, which was announced two weeks ago, was on show at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas that opened on Tuesday. Intel has been building its drone expertise throughout the year with a series of acquisitions, and the Falcon 8 has grown out of its January purchase of Germany's Ascend Technologies. The drone has eight rotors arranged in a distinctive V-shape, designed that way so the rotors at the front don't get in the way of a payload, said Natalie Cheung, a drone marketing manager at Intel. "We've really thought about what are some of the issues commercial customers face today and when they want to get that crisp, hi-res image, you don't want any of the rotors in the image," she said. Redundancy is a key feature of the device -- it can continue flying even if up to two rotors on either side stop spinning.