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automotive companies, for manufacturing enough drones to
meet the expected demand in Europe when commercial opera-
tions in the region commence.

Dronamics has its R&D hub in Bulgaria, where it was founded,
and is headquartered in the UK. At the helm of the company
along with Svilen is his brother Konstantin, an aerospace engi-
neer who is Chief Technology Officer of the company. The idea of
introducing a solution for the middle mile originated in 2013, says
Svilen. “My brother and I saw the Amazon drones in December
2013 and had the idea of building something bigger that solves
the middle mile, not the last mile. We looked at general aviation
and realized that there is a big opportunity to create something
from the ground up, like a single seat or two seat aircraft, but
only for cargo.”
© Dronamics
Taking a Different Route made a conscious design choice eight years

Dronamics was, from the outset, focused on a larger platform. “We ago not to go with an electric engine,” says
never really looked at smaller drones seriously,” says Rangelov. Rangelov. “We are talking about flights of up
“If a regulator asks you to put another 10 kg of equipment to to 2,500 km. Not only are batteries very heavy
make the drone safer and complaint with aviation standards, it but the energy density is four times worse
is not going to take off as it itself is only 10-20 kg. It is not great than gasoline.”
if you have to install the equipment on a larger system, but it is The drone, which has the cargo capacity of a
definitely doable.” small delivery van, offers a speedier alterna-
The Black Swan drone, which has been designed as a fixed-wing tive to low-cost road freight and a significantly
aircraft that can take off and land at runways as short as 400 less expensive option compared to conven-
meters in length, is capable of flying at an altitude of 20,000 ft tional air freight. The company’s potential
and has an average speed of 200 km/hour, or 125 mph. The drone for growth is huge as there is a burgeoning
has a wingspan of 16m / 52ft, height of 4m / 13ft, diameter of demand for same-day delivery of not only
1.3m/ 4.3ft, and a total capacity of 3.5 cmb or 925 gal. Touted e-commerce but also other time time-critical
as the most fuel-efficient unmanned cargo airplane, the cost of shipments such as pharma, perishables, and
cargo delivery by the Black Swan is expected to be up to 50 per humanitarian aid.
cent lower than existing same-day air cargo. ”In terms of customer value level, there is a

For a drone the size of the Black Swan and the distance that it big gap between air and road freight,” says
covers, an electric aircraft was not even a consideration. “We Rangelov. “Currently, for every 6 kg of cargo
that fly in Europe between countries, 1000
kgs go by road. Even if you were to double
the market of air freight market domestically
in Europe tomorrow, you would only be chip-
ping 0.6 per cent, which is much less than the
growth rate of the other modes of transport.
There is immense scope for growth.”

Droneports

Even as it gets the Black Swan ready for its
first commercial flight, Dronamics is also
focused on expanding its European Droneport
Network, In March this year, the company
announced that it had added three airports
in Germany - Paderborn-Lippstadt, Rostock–
Laage and Airport Weeze - to the network. The
constantly growing network currently includes
more than 40 locations in 14 European
countries.

According to the company, the network is
© Dronamics
powered by its fully mobile droneport cargo
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