孙子迷上无人机，巴菲特很感兴趣

    欢迎来到无人机时代。据安全专家表示，无人机将成为未来战争的关键。很快，只要亚马逊（Amazon）CEO杰夫•贝佐斯能够找到解决办法，无人机将被用于派送商品。而最新型号的无人机操作非常简单，普通业余爱好者现在可以花1,000美元左右在线购买，用于记录冒险假期或体育活动中的特殊时刻。

    霍华德•W•巴菲特表示：“它的操作十分简便。”当然，他可不是普通的业余爱好者。30岁的霍华德是沃伦•巴菲特的孙子，目前担任巴菲特内布拉斯加农场(Buffett Farms Nebraska)的总裁。他的父亲霍华德•G•巴菲特是沃伦•巴菲特的长子。霍华德在奥马哈以北50英里占地400英亩的农场里与他父亲一起种植玉米和大豆。1986年，他的亿万富翁爷爷以非常便宜的价格购买了这一大片土地——准确地说是280,000美元，还在今年致伯克希尔•哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)股东的信中总结了这笔一流房地产投资的经验。

    四月份，霍华德在阅读一篇科技博客的时候，读到了DJI Phanton 2 Vision + RTF四轴飞行器。这是一种四旋翼飞行摄像机，他认为这款设备可以帮助他“记录一个中等规模的农民从事保护性农业的故事。”

    于是，他在一个叫Dave's Discount Motors的地方，以1,299美元现场购买了Phantom 2 Vision+。这款无人机结构紧凑，非常轻巧，可以放在他的双肩包内。巴菲特只进行了两次试飞，就在购买四天之后把它在农场上放飞。他自己使用遥控器操控无人机，拍摄了80分钟的视频。巴菲特解释道：“它无法录制音频，所以我之后录制了解说词，进行了后期制作，还增加了一些新内容。”

    最终的作品是一段长三分钟、令人眼花缭乱的视频。这段视频将在美国阵亡将士纪念日当天，在有线电视网络RFD-TV的一档知名节目Ag Day中播出。

    霍华德的航空摄影处女作可能会催生一种新的职业。他说：“在家庭便餐上，我在家庭聚餐上播放了这段视频。爷爷似乎很感兴趣。”五月初，在伯克希尔•哈撒韦的年度大会周末上，他的父亲让他为公司的董事会成员播放了这段视频。小霍华德说：“我们说要在明年的年度大会上使用四轴飞行器。虽然它有些吵，听起来像是吹风机。或许明年，他们能会让它变得更安静。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Welcome to the drone age. Drones are the key to future warfare, security experts say. Drones will soon deliver your Amazon (AMZN) packages, if CEO Jeff Bezos has his way. And the latest versions of the unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are so user-friendly than an ordinary hobbyist can now buy one for $1,000 or so online and use it to film special moments, from adventure vacations to sporting events.

    "It's the easiest thing," says Howard W. Buffett, who, granted, is no ordinary hobbyist. The 30-year-old grandson of Warren Buffett is president of Buffett Farms Nebraska. With his dad Howard G. Buffett, who is Warren's elder son, Howard W. grows corn and soybeans on 400 acres that sit 50 miles north of Omaha. His billionaire grandfather famously bought the tract for a song -- $280,000, to be exact -- in 1986, and wrote about lessonsfrom his stellar real-estate investment in this year's letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) shareholders.

    The young Buffett was perusing a tech blog in April when he read about the DJI Phanton 2 Vision+ RTF Quadcopter, a four-rotor flying camera that he figured could help him "tell a story of a mid-sized farmer practicing conservation-based agriculture."

    He bought the Phantom 2 Vision+ for $1,299 on a site called Dave's Discount Motors. Compact and light enough to fit in his backpack, the drone required just two test flights before Buffett, four days after getting it in the mail, set it aloft above his acreage. By himself, with no crew or assistant, he maneuvered the UAV by remote control and shot 80 minutes of video. "It doesn't record audio, so I did the narration afterwards and laid it on post-production," Buffett explains.

    The final product, a dazzling three-minute video, is due to air on Memorial Day on a popular show called Ag Day on cable network RFD-TV.

    The Buffett scion's first foray into aerial videography might lead to a new career. "I showed the video at our family brunch. Grandpa seemed impressed," he says. In early May, during Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting weekend, his dad had him show the film to a few of the company's board members. "We talked about flying the quadcopter above next year's annual meeting," says young Howard, "though it's noisy and sounds like a small leaf blower. Maybe next year, they'll make one that's quieter."