In New York City, building owners are responsible for ensuring that building facades are properly maintained and regularly inspected for safety. For buildings taller than six stories, the law mandates that a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (QEWI) conduct an inspection and submit a safety report every five years.

Drones can significantly enhance this process. They enable inspections that would typically take weeks or months with methods like scaffolding, wall drops, or cherry pickers to be completed in just hours. Drones can also reach tight and confined spaces that other equipment may cannot gain access to. Drones offer 100% coverage of your buildings facade

Since drones can provide near-complete coverage of a facade, all imagery is geo-located along the length of the wall, creating a detailed orthomosaic (map) of the facade. This makes drones the most efficient, thorough, and cost-effective solution for visual inspections.

In most cases, we are hired either directly by the building owner, Archicture/Engineering firm or property management company to conduct an inspection for their specific needs (usually for insurance purposes) or to work directly under the QEWI assigned to the building, helping to tailor the inspection to meet the requirements of their safety report. AeroSpect also performs inspections for bridges, cranes and highways.

We use high-resolution cameras for all of our inspections ranging from 20 megapixel, 45 megapixel and 100 megapixel depending on the requirements of the project. Additionally, Aerospect utilizes advanced aerial infrared cameras for facade and rooftop inspections. Infrared cameras detect heat variations across a surface, allowing us to identify issues such as moisture on roofs or walls, areas with poor insulation, and leaks caused by exfiltration or HVAC system failures.

You will receive a high-resolution map of your entire façade, created by a drone, with marked locations for each photo taken. This allows you and your team members to view the wall in high detail and quickly find the original photos, making it easy to highlight and annotate specific issues on the façade.

We offer various delivery options to fit your workflow. To make access easy for you and your team, we’ve developed the Aerospect Web Portal, where you can view and annotate your façade map from anywhere. We use multiple image hosting methods to accommodate your needs and also provide offline delivery options, including the physical transfer of all your data on a hard drive to any location you specify.

The choice is entirely yours. All processing is done offline to ensure the security of your data. The AeroSpect Web Portal is a cloud-hosted map and annotation tool, and projects are created upon your request for convenience. It utilizes industry-standard passwords and encryption to ensure that only you and the users you authorize can access your façade data.

AeroSpect is committed to privacy and data security. All data is captured, processed, and stored offline in a secure NYC location. It is only uploaded and hosted online with your explicit permission.

Absolutely, we can accommodate any CAD format you prefer. Just send us a template of your typical CAD drawing, and AeroSpect will work with you to integrate it seamlessly. We can export to the most popular file formats, including .dwg files.

All we need to get started is the location and area of each wall to be inspected. Additionally, we recommend providing any existing elevations of the façade or building to ensure the most accurate scan possible. Having drawings from your firm helps speed up the process and makes CAD integration much easier.

AeroSpect holds all necessary federal authorizations to operate drones across all 5 boroughs of New York City. (This includes Times Square). We also hold a fly over people waiver allowing us to collect data on buildings without the need of installing a sidewalk shed. Additionally, we have licensed pilots in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas and Washington DC.

The founders of AeroSpect are deeply committed to their craft, having successfully sued the city to allow drones for commercial purposes, a victory that has forever changed how many industries operate. They have also played a key role in developing best practices for acquiring the highest quality data and delivering it to clients. We take great pride in our excellent safety track record, having performed inspections on some of NYC’s most iconic buildings using the latest high-resolution cameras. AeroSpect is owner-operated, meaning we handle all work in-house and never outsource or rely on third-party pilots, as many aggregator companies do.

Yes.

Our service is primarily designed for architects and engineers who are Qualified Exterior Wall Inspectors (QEWI) in NYC, or for property owners who work with a QEWI. Our inspection service and web platform are tailored to allow QEWI professionals to virtually inspect the site in the same manner they would during an on-site inspection. The key difference is that they are reviewing high-resolution 3D drone models from the comfort of their office, rather than visiting the site in person.

NYC Local Law 11 currently mandates that all facade inspections include a hands-on component, meaning drone inspections alone do not meet this requirement. However, drone inspections provide 100% visual coverage of the facade, which can supplement and even reduce the cost of a hands-on inspection.

By conducting a drone facade inspection first, your hands-on inspection team will have a comprehensive visual map to plan wall drops and prioritize areas for closer inspection. The NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) accepts drone imagery as valid photographic evidence of an inspection.

Almost any defect visible in a traditional inspection can also be detected using a drone. Our standard drone inspection uses 20-megapixel imagery, which is highly effective at identifying cracks of 1” or larger, missing bolts or attachments of ½” or greater, and most visual spalling issues. Drones can operate at close distances to the building, allowing them to access better heights and angles compared to ground-based inspections. Contact us for sample imagery!

If your project requires even higher resolution, AeroSpect has the capability to fly larger-frame cameras for enhanced detail.

As a known NYC drone vendor with NYPD, we have the ability to request permits typically within 14 days notice. Contact us if you require a project done sooner – we have additional expedited options.

Inspections for buildings 10 stories or smaller typically take a single day to complete. Larger or taller buildings may require multiple days, depending on conditions. However, even for the largest projects, drone inspections are usually finished within a week.

Deliverables are typically available within 10 business days of data collection completion. If your project requires expedited timelines, we offer faster turnaround options—contact us for more details.

We offer flexibility for drafting CAD. 2D CAD drawings are available in .DXF or .DWG format as a customized add-on. We’ll work with you to determine the level of detail you need for your drawings and provide a tailored quote.

If you prefer to create your own CAD drawings but need a 2D basemap, our orthomosaic add-on provides high-resolution, 1:1 scale orthomosaics embedded in an AutoCAD .dwg file, ready for immediate use.

We work closely with our Revit + BIM partners to produce 3D models based on drone data. Contact us to discuss your BIM and 3D modeling needs.

While indoor drone flights are possible, mobile laser scanning is often the most cost-effective and straightforward method. We use our ground photogrammetry and laser scanning team to accurately capture interior spaces. For large projects, we collaborate closely with our BIM and laser scanning partners to scan interiors at scale, if needed for your project.