Drone Videos of Factories

Contributor and pilot caldroneflyer used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 to film one of the world's largest and best-known factories - the main Tesla assembly plant in northern California.  It's situated in Fremont, a large community on the east side of San Francisco Bay.  The plant began its life in 1962 as a General Motors factory, then became part of a joint venture between GM and Toyota which ended in 2009.  Purchased by Tesla the next year and heavily renovated, it began producing Tesla Model S's in 2012.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot Chris Bonano used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to create this aerial of one of the most famous factories in the USA.  It's the GE Power Systems plant in Schenectady, New York.  The original factory was built in 1887 for the Edison Machine Works, the manufacturing arm of the great inventor Thomas Edison.  In 1892, in a reorganization orchestrated by the banking house JP Morgan, Edison's companies were merged with competitor Thomson-Houston to form General Electric.

Check out this drone video of the world's largest beer facory, compliments of contributor Blaze.  It's the main brewery of the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, a western suburb or Denver.  Founded by a German immigrant named Adolph Coors in 1873, Coors was largely a regional brand until the 1970's, whereupon it embarked on a large expansion and became the USA's third-largest brewer.  In 2005, the company was acquired by Canada's Molson Brewing, which is now the #3 worldwide brewer.  

The Malt-O-Meal Company (MOM) grew from modest roots as a maker of a farina wheat product which competed with the Cream of Wheat brand.  It went on to become the largest manufacturer of off-brand packaged breakfast cereals and one of the largest private companies in Minnesota, before being sold to Post Brands in 2015.  In this drone video by gopherdrone, you'll get a bird's eye view of the MOM plant at its former headquarters in Northfield, Minnesota, about 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities.  

Gopherdrone created this aerial view of one of the largest manufacturing plants in the USA's Upper Midwest region.  It's a window factory in Bayport, Minnesota that's the main plant for Andersen Corporation, the world's largest wooden window manufacturer with about $2.5 billion in estimated annual sales.  The Bayport plant covers 270k square meters (about 2.8 million square ft.) and sits on a 65 acre site.   The Bayport facility is believed to be the world's largest window manufacturing factory.  

Houston, Texas is the center of the USA's (and in many respects, the world's) energy industry.  It's home to some of the world's largest oil refineries and petrochemical factories; the former produce gasoline from crude oil while the latter use (largely) natural gas feedstock to produce materials ranging from synthetic fibers to detergents.  In this drone video by Lone Star Drones, you'll get an aerial view of a petrochemical plant operated by Total USA near La Porte, just east of Houston.  

Contributor Chris Bonanno used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 to create this aerial video of the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts.  From the Revolutionary War through the mid-1960's, the Armory was the USA's principal manufacturing site for military firearms.  Its 40x increase in rifle output during the course of the Civil War was one of the key factors behind the Union victory.  Springfield's extensive use of standardization and interchangeable parts also contributed heavily to the USA's industrialization.  

For many decades, Bethlehem Steel Co. was the second-largest US steelmaker.  Its massive original plant on the Lehigh River just east of Allentown, Pennsylvania employed over 35,000 during World War II, when its output of steel plate was critical to the Allied war effort.  Its products also helped to create some of America's most well-known infrastructure, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. In this drone video by Chris Bonnanno, you'll get a bird's eye view of the plant, which ceased operations in 1995.

In this drone video, you'll get a bird's eye view of the launching of a type of floating factory known as a Floating Production and Storage Offloading (FPSO) ship.  These massive ships work in offshore oil and gas production fields, processing and storing hydrocarbons before they are transported to consumers around the world.  Originally converted tankers, FPSO's are now dedicated built for purpose vessels.  This one is being launched in South Korea, en route to the offshore fields of Nigeria.  

Poland is the second largest coal producer in Europe, after Russia.  The vast majority of the country's electric needs are supplied by coal (including lignite, a type of lower-quality coal) fired power plants, including the world's largest lignite-fired power plant.  In this video, AirVuz contributor Dronujemy provides us with an aerial tour of the Poznań Karolin Heat Power Station, which has a rated capacity of about 275 MW.  It's located near Poznan, in the western part of the country.

Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant is a nuclear power plant located about 45 minutes northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Built in 1971, its General Electric boiling water reactor produces just over 670 MW of power at its current rated nameplate capacity. One of roughly 60 nuclear plants operating in the United States as of 2019, the Monticello plant is owned by the Minneapolis-based utility company Xcel Energy.  Check it out from above in this drone video by AirVuz contributor gopherdrone.   

New York City was once a major manufacturing center.  Much of its industrial base was focused on food products and other needs of its massive population.  One of its most prominent factories was the Domino Sugar Refinery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, along the East River.  Once the world's largest sugar refinery, the factory ceased operations in the early 2000's.  Today, as you'll see in this drone video by Odessa1799, it's being redeveloped into an office/residential complex. 

Cement is one of the most critical of the bulk materials - without it, most modern construction would be impossible.  The manufacturing of cement has evolved using sophisticated industrial process control, and due to the low value/weight of the finished product it tends to take place close to the point of use.  In this drone video by Roger'sSkybird, you'll get a fascinating aerial view of a cement plant operated by the Swiss company Jura.  It's located in the town of Möriken-Wildegg in the canton of Aargau.

Content creator and pilot FreakinTim created this amazing drone video of one of the most important sites of German industrial history.  The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is near Essen, Germany, in the heart of the country's Rhineland region.  The plant shown in the video turned coal from the nearby coal mine to coke, a critical ingredient for integrated  steel manufacturing.  At one point, it was the largest coking operation in the world, and was a vital component of Germany's steelmaking industry.

Check out this drone video of one of the world's largest breweries, compliments of contributor mavictraveler.  It's the main Anheuser-Busch beer factory in St. Louis, Missouri.  Situated on the Mississippi River just downstream from downtown, the complex consists of nearly 200 individual buildings.  A designated National Historic Landmark, the complex was originally the handiwork of AB co-founder Adolphus Busch, who immigrated to this Midwestern city from Germany in the mid-19th century.  

In the USA, one of the most consequential trends towards cleaner power has been the shift in electricity generation from coal-fired to gas-fired power.  Fueled by the country's plentiful natural gas supplies, gas-fired plants emit far less particulate, sulfur, and other contaminants compared to coal plants.  In this video, Aerial Vision Chicago gives us a nice drone's eye view of the JPower USA simple-cycle gas-fired power plant in suburban Chicago, IL, which has a rated capacity of 1,350MW.

New AirVuz contributor monstar brings us this fascinating drone video of one of the great industrial sites of Russia: the Gorky Automobile Plant in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.  Built in the 1930's with the assistance of the Ford Motor Company, the plant followed the American company's model of vertical integration.  Originally producing licensed versions of the Ford Model A, the plant went on to produce the Russian-designed GAZ vehicles.  Its presence earned Nizhny Novgorod the nickname "the Detroit of Russia".  

The ongoing electric vehicle revolution is requiring the construction of gigantic new manufacturing plants to manufacture the batteries to power the electric motors that drive these new cars, trucks, and buses.  In this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor Shuttering Thru Life, you'll get a great aerial view of one of these new mammoth facilities.  The factory, operated by Ultium Cells, is located in Spring Hill, Tennessee, south of Nashville.  It covers 2.3 million square ft. (about 214k square m).    

During America's Gilded Age decades of 1880-1900, Minneapolis was the fastest growing city in the country.  The city's main growth engine during these years was the flour industry, the epicenter of which was the gigantic Washburn A Mill, seen here in this drone video by gopherdrone.  The world's largest flour mill when it opened in 1880, it replaced an earlier version which exploded catastrophically in 1878.  The mill's operator eventually became General Mills, which shut down the facility in 1965.

By almost any available measure, China has become the workshop of the world over the past several decades.  In heavy industries like steel, coal, and other types of metallurgy, its annual national production is multiples of the highest levels ever achieved by western countries.  In this video, top AirVuz contributor Mattcoq gives us a drone's eye view of some of China's many smokestacks on the Yangtze River near Shanghai, the country's largest city, which lies on China's east (Pacific Ocean) coast.   

Here's a nice aerial view of one of Russia's largest power plants, compliments of AirVuz contributor romanblats.  The Novo-Ryazan Thermal Power Plant is located in the town of Novomichurinsk in the Ryazan Oblast, about 285 km (around 170 mi.) southeast of Moscow.  It's powered by a type of low-grade coal called lignite.  With a rated capacity of about 3.1 gigawatts, the plant is the country's fifth-largest electricity generating station.  Commissioned in 1971, its 320 meter (1.05k ft.) chimney is one of the world's tallest. 

For centuries, the lands of the Czech Republic have been known for their metalworking industries.  Going back centuries, the Behemian and Moravian regions were home to some of the most arms manufacturing in Europe, and the Czech lands were amongst the first on the European continent to industrialize as the Industrial Revolution began to spread from Britain.  In this drone video from Mikin, you'll get an aerial look at the Klamova Ironworks, a well known 19th century ironworks near Brno.

The USA's East Coast city of Baltimore, Maryland was once one of the country's largest manufacturing centers.  Much of the industrial heart of Baltimore was built up around the Inner Harbor area, which allowed for the shipment in of raw materials and the shipment out of finished products.  In this drone video by geromd65, you'll get an aerial view of the heart of industrial Baltimore: the Tide Point area.  The "star" of the show is the giant Domino Sugar factory; nearly a century old, it remains one of the USA's largest sugar refineries.  

In this video, you'll get an aerial tour of the site of what was once the world's largest factory.  The Ford River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan was made of 93 buildings which covered an incredible 16 million square feet.  It initially was a steel plant, then integrated forward into parts and finally to fully assembled vehicles beginning with the famed Model A in 1927.  The giant manufacturing complex employed an incredible 100,000 workers at its peak.  The site closed in 2004 and was more or less demolished by 2008.

Cement is one of the most basic and vital manufactured materials.  It's produced from limestone, which goes through a series of is processes in a special-purpose plant (usually located near the quarry) and distributed.  With considerable returns to scale, cement plants tend to be quite large, like the one you'll see in this drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot Galliano.  Located near the city of Maastricht in the eastern part of the Netherlands, it's a factory which is operated by Dutch cement company ENCI.

Founded in 1905, Continental Motors was one of the USA's first manufacturers of internal combustion engines.  It opened its first Detroit plant on East Jefferson Street in 1911.  The Detroit plant supplied engines for many of the storied names in early automotive history - companies like Hudson, Abbott-Detroit, and others who lacked the vertical integration of GM and Ford.  Seen in this drone video by skyview productions, the plant switched to aero engine manufacture but was shuttered in 1955.

The USA's Gulf of Mexico coastline is home to one of the world's largest concentrations of oil refineries and petrochemical plants.  These massive complexes convert crude oil and natural gas into useable liquid fuels as well as a countless array of industrial and consumer products made from hydrocarbon feedstocks.  In this drone video by Bumble Bee Productions, you'll get an aerial view of the industrial landscape of Sulphur, Louisiana.  It's located in the southwestern part of the state, near the border with Texas.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot Sebastian Ferguson created this amazing drone video of Landschaftspark Duisburg, a park in western Germany which was designed to celebrate Germany's industrial heritage.  It's located near Duisberg, in the Ruhr valley.  This region has been the center of Germany's smokestack industries that enabled the country to overtake Great Britain as Europe's leading manufacturing center in the late 1800's. A steel plant and coal mine (now closed) are the centerpieces of the park.

For centuries, the economy of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico was built on one commodity: sugar.  The sugar cane fields which ringed its coast fed some of the largest sugar mills in the world.  For a variety of reasons, the industry went into decline beginning in the 1930s, and production today is virtually non-existent. In this drone video by Pedro's Airtime, you'll get a bird's eye view of the now-abandoned Aguada mill, the first integrated mill on the island and for decades one of the world's largest.

Nicaragua has been greatly impacted by goings-on in Cuba; for example, long-term dictator Somoza was overthrown in the late 1970's largely due to the efforts of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.  Another way in which the countries are intertwined is in the making of cigars; when Castro assumed power in Cuba, many of the country's cigar makers decamped for Honduras.  In this drone video by Kenneth Espinoza, you'll get a bird's eye view of a cigar factory in Esteli, now the center of the Nicaraguan cigar industry.

Birmingham, Alabama was once known as the Pittsburgh of the South for its steel factories, which turned the city into the largest manufacturing center in the Southeastern USA for a time.  Beginning in the 1970's, the industry retrenched here as it did in the north, and many blast furnaces were shut down.  In this drone video by Alec Smirts, you'll get an aerial view of one of the Ensley Works, which was operated by Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. until being completely shut down in 1984. 

The corporate behemoth known as General Motors was largely assembled via series of acquisitions in the first few decades of the 20th century.  Arguably the most important of these was Fisher Body, the world's largest auto body maker; GM acquired 60% of Fisher in 1919 and the remainder in 1926.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot skyview productions, you'll get an aerial view of Fisher's Plant #21, one of its most storied plants.  Opened in 1919, it was shuttered in 1982 and is now in an abandoned state.

The USA's Pacific Northwest was once home to a huge forest products industry, with hundreds of saw and paper mills around the region.   With the rise of much tighter environmental restrictions, high labor costs, and tough competition from foreign producers, the timber products industry in Washington and Oregon has been decimated.  In this video, contributor 60 Seconds gives us a bird's eye view of a paper mill in Blue Heron, OR which succumbed to the poor conditions and was abandoned several years ago.

England's Midlands region played a key role in the Industrial Revolution which began in the late 18th century.  While the revolution is closely associated with the textile mills and mines of Northern England, the fact is that much of the equipment and industrial process knowledge evolved in places like Birmingham and Derby in the Midlands.  In this video, you'll get an aerial glimpse of England's industrial past in the form of an old factory in Nottinghamshire, courtesy of contributor jez gascoyne.

Take a first person view (FPV) drone tour of one of the world's most advanced electric two-wheeler manufacturing factories, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Yamen.  Operated by Indian manufacturer Ola Electric (a wholly-owned subsidiary of ANI Technologies), the brand-new (2021) state-of-the-art plant is located in the Krishnagiri District in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu; it began making its first deliveies at the end of 2021.  This video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in August, 2022. 

Multiple DVOW Winner FrameWorkFilms brings us this amazing drone video of one of the world's largest thermal solar energy installations.  It's called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, and it's located in the Mojave Desert near Clark Mountain in Southern California, near the Nevada state line.  Unlike "traditional" solar farms, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, solar thermal plants use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generate steam, which in turn drives giant turbines to generate electrical power.