R&D.
The production cost of the units is likely quite reasonable but the cost of developing and testing the system is what cost ₤20mil.
The production cost of the units is likely quite reasonable but the cost of developing and testing the system is what cost ₤20mil.
About 2 years ago i was building comparable devices for around £285 GBP each. Today i can do the same (thanks to cheaper lighter parts and experience on my part) for slightly over £110, that could be reduced for bulk builds.
My R&D costs were 2 weeks worth of my evenings reading and planning.
You can buy a commercially developed equivalent with better flight stability than the model they've produced (their design is inherently more unstable - and thus agile, and possibly slightly quieter) for under £60 delivered, video reception equipment is a separate purchase at £30.
Although i reckon even the common kit that's been available to consumers for the past few years could be tricky to jam without concerted effort:
http://www.futaba-rc.com/technology/fasst.html
I.e. to jam this frequency hopping requires than you either a) figure out what channels to jam at what time or b) saturate the full bandwidth.
If you can do either of those, you'd probably be better jamming the voice comms than RC helis. Not sure though.