The Hour

State of the art technology used to photograph wind turbines and power lines is being trialled by the Scotland team in the hope of complementing more traditional methods of training.

The Cyberhawk radio-controlled helicopters, which feature an on-board video camera, works using satellite signals and has the capability to fly up to 60 metres in the air.

It can also hover next lower to the ground, next to individual players, providing useful footage for analysing the positions and patterns of the team.

The helicopters, are ordinarily used by Scottish Hydro - the company sponsoring Scottish Rugby - to investigate safety issues however recent demands for this state of the art technology could see it fly its way into the sporting world very soon.

Malcolm Connelly from Cyberhawk Innovations commented on the interest in the helicopter nicknamed by the Scottish rugby team as the "Flying Scotsmen" after Ian Smith.

“We have been approached by other people to look at things like down hill mountain biking, also other extreme sports and the obvious one of football," Malcom said.

“There is a lot of technology involved in it. When it is outside, it has got GPS so it picks up a lot of satellite and lets me concentrate on controlling the shots rather than controlling the helicopter.”

He added: “We wanted to see if getting a different perspective from above would help them with their training.”