Ural Just Created a Motorcycle with a Built-In Drone

Russian motorcycle company IMZ-Ural wants to ask a question:

“What’s over the ridge? What’s just beyond your campsite? What obstacles lie ahead after a big storm?”

The answer? A drone launcher–or specifically a sidecar that can launch a drone.

This technology comes from Ural Air, which features a “DJI Spark Drone” inside. It can be launched out of the sidecar’s compartment to help give you aerial photos of what’s “out there” over the horizon.

Only 40 units of the Ural Air have been manufactured, and the price tag is at around USD18,000–or around P950,000. It’s almost a shy away from a million pesos.

Inspired by first-hand experiences

According to the company, they were inspired by their riders’ adventures and experiences in “different views.”

“The inspiration behind this limited edition was to open Ural riders to new experiences, and see their adventures from a different perspective. It also reflects our fascination with blending Ural’s classic design with cutting-edge technologies.”

Ural, whose motorcycle origins go way back to the time of World War II , was patterned “after a late-1930s BMW sidecar bike called the R71. It was the vehicle that the Nazi Germany provided to the Soviet Union after the countries signed a non-aggression Molotov–Ribbentrop pact in 1939.

The very first model was found to match the requirements that the Red Army needed to push through the “harsh Russian climate and terrain” during that time. Production eventually increased, and they moved their production plant to the town of Irbit, located in the Ural mountains of Siberia.