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N.E.D. – the News Eight Drone – makes maiden flight

N.E.D. can travel up to four miles away and 1,500 feet in the air.

DAVENPORT -- Meet NED. Well, actually N.E.D. - an acronym for News Eight Drone - WQAD's newest piece of storytelling technology.

The heavy-duty, professional grade drone made its inaugural flight today during the 5 p.m. broadcast, bringing live pictures from high in the sky. With a nearly six-foot wide wingspan, self-stabilizing technology so it can be flown in high wind and the ability to self-land all while shooting in clear high-definition, NED is expected to be highly effective in bringing unique video to WQAD newscasts.

When the time came to name the drone the news team wanted to avoid the boring and generic, so they turned that job over to the audience. Nominations for names were sought via crowd-sourcing on social media, and more than 100 nominees were whittled down to a Final Four.

N.E.D. the News Eight Drone was submitted by Facebook commenter Susan Monohan of Geneseo. It won with 47 percent of the vote, edging out runners up SkyView 8, Eagle 8 and Air 8.

Keep your eyes on the sky as WQAD deploys N.E.D. to bring you breaking news and weather.

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