alt Hacker NewsJust looking at the injection molded shell of my Mavic Mini makes me cringe when thinking about the startup cost. It's the plastic shell; not the motors, nor the circuitry, nor the optical parts...and to think you could build that in the USA is laughable. DJI releases 2-3 models every 2-3 years... if you could even find a company in the USA machining the steel molds at that frequency (i don't think it exists) how are you going to afford the bill?
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quesera • yesterday at 9:11 PM
I'm confused. Machining molds is not a lost or obscure technology.
A skilled machinist (and the US has many) used to be able do it in any moderately-equipped machine shop.
Is there something new and magic about modern injection molding?
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We'll just let Boeing build them. They have the know-how.
Plus, if we're talking military drones vs civilian drones, they wouldn't need plastic shells. That'd just be more weight reducing distance. Then again, military industrial complex would probably try to make them stealth capable, be designed by committee from 22 nation states, be micro-USB mandated to comply with EU standards, blah blah. Yeah, you're right, we'd never be able to build them here.