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several companies are in various 80 per cent faster, 50 per cent Growing Demand
stages of developing cargo drones cheaper, and with 60 per cent less The demand for large cargo
of different sizes. emissions, than other transpor- drones is expected to spike in
tation methods. The EU’s Light
Readying to Fly UAS Operator Certificate (LUC)m the future. Among the cargo
carriers that are intent on incor-
Dronamics, the first cargo drone which Dronamics received in May porating them into their fleet is
company to receive a light UAS 2022 from the Transport Malta Kenya’s Astral Aviation. All Nippon
operator certificate (LUC), is Civil Aviation Directorate (TM – Airways is another, having signed
getting ready for the inaugural CAD), gives the company the right a partnership with Wingcopter.
commercial flight and mass pro- to commence flight operations, Meanwhile, Air Canada Cargo is
duction of its flagship Black Swan including Beyond Visual Line of functioning as a sales agent for
unmanned aerial vehicle, a long- Sight (BVLOS) operations, across Drone Delivery Canada.
range drone that can carry 350kg EU countries.
up to 2,500 km. The company Dronamics has signed a contract Astral Aviation has its eyes on
plans to start commercial opera- with Quickstep, a company spe- the 2-tonne payload FlyOx Cargo
tions, starting in Greece, followed cializing in aerospace composites, Drone. Drones have a unique
by the rest of the Mediterranean, to have the Black Swan manufac- advantage in that they can land
the Gulf region as well as tured at the Australian company’s in unpaved airfields and on
Australia. In November last year, facilities in New South Wales. water, which cannot be done by
Dronamics and Qatar Airways In September last year, the mid- fixed wing aircraft, says Sanjeev
Cargo, the world’s largest inter- dle-mile cargo drone developer Gadhia, founder and CEO of the
national cargo carrier, announced said that it was partnering with company. “The cost of operation is
an interline agreement, the first Cotesa, European manufacturer significantly lower than commer-
one of its kind between an inter- of composite fiber components for cial aircraft with a visible saving
national airline and a cargo drone aerospace and automotive com- of 50% and is environmentally
airline. friendly. The use of large cargo
panies, for manufacturing enough drones has been a part of Astral’s
In May 2023, the company drones to meet the expected vision to bring innovation in last-
announced the successful com- demand in Europe when com- mile delivery,” he adds.
pletion of the first flight of its mercial operations in the region
flagship aircraft, the Black Swan, commence. Airbus in the Mix
at Balchik airport in Bulgaria. “We The Black Swan, which has been In October 2022, Airbus suc-
are now ready to mass manufac- designed as a fixed-wing aircraft cessfully tested a small-scale
ture the first units,” says Svilen that can fly and land on runways demonstration version of its future
Rangelov, Dronamics Co-Founder as short as 400 meters in length, “cargo copter” drone, which is
and CEO. “Our plan is to work is capable of flying at an altitude designed to transport 250 kg
with partners on a regional of 20,000 ft and has an average of payload across a maximum
basis. We are talking about city- speed of 200 km/hour, or 125 range of just over 300 kilometers.
to-city connectivity, routes of mph. Touted as the most fuel-ef- The demonstration model of the
300 km or more. The big cities ficient unmanned cargo airplane, heavy-load cargo drone was flown
get the big freighters; we are the cost of cargo delivery by the in trial missions by the company’s
focused on secondary markets Black Swan is expected to be up UAS New Programmes group,
where you cannot have such to 50 per cent lower than existing which worked on the project with
freighters. These markets also same-day air cargo. its rapid-development X-Works
have needs that need to be met team. The small-scale test model -
the same day. We believe we In March 2022, Dronamics a 35 kg (77 lb.) vertical takeoff and
have a sweet spot between 300 announced that it had added three landing craft – was equipped with
km to 2500 km.” airports in Germany - Paderborn- Airbus’s DeckFind technology that
Lippstadt, Rostock–Laage and ensures safe automatic landing on
The company claims that the
Black Swan, which was unveiled Airport Weeze - to its European the surfaces of ships. Although
to the public in December 2021, Droneport Network. The growing the initial deployment is planned
will enable same-day delivery network currently includes more for military transport, the freight
to the most remote areas up to than 40 locations in 14 European drone is likely to be adapted for
countries. commercial use as well.
14 | NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2024 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/AAA
