Successful First Public Flight of Volocopter's VoloDrone
PR92269
HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--
Volocopter's electric heavy-lift drone
VoloDrone[https://www.volocopter.com/solutions/volodrone/] conducted its first
public flight today at ITS World Congress 2021[https://itsworldcongress.com/].
Together with the international logistics leader DB Schenker, Volocopter, the
pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), demonstrated VoloDrone's seamless
integration into the logistics supply chain with an end-to-end cargo transport
demonstration. The partners showed their significant progress together since DB
Schenker became a strategic investor of Volocopter in early 2020.
The 3-minute test flight took off at 3:02 p.m at homePORT
Hamburg[https://www.homeport.hamburg/en] and reached a maximum altitude of 22
meters. For this delivery simulation, the electric heavy-lift utility drone was
equipped with a load-box in between its landing gear. First, the demonstration
teams secured a Euro-pallet sized load to the box under the VoloDrone, followed
by a smooth take-off. After this, the aircraft brought the payload to a DB
Schenker Cargo Bike and landed safely. Once the payload was transferred
successfully, the Cargo Bike delivered its cargo to the final destination under
the area's park deck, marking the completion of the entirely electric,
multimodal last-mile delivery.
"This first public VoloDrone flight is a strong sign for Volocopter´s leading
position in the UAM industry. We are the only UAM company offering solutions
for passengers and goods that are flying fully scaled and publicly around the
world," says Florian Reuter, Volocopter CEO. "Our VoloDrone will make existing
logistics processes more robust, efficient, and sustainable. DB Schenker is an
invaluable partner in our endeavor to untap the massive potential of our
VoloDrone's logistics use cases."
Erik Wirsing, Vice President Global Innovation at DB Schenker, comments, "With
the VoloDrone flight today, we were able to publicly demonstrate our successful
collaboration and the impressive progress on DB Schenker's innovation and
sustainability roadmap for cleaner logistics. Volocopter has proven again that
they are the ideal partner for DB Schenker's ambition to rethink global supply
chains and bring transport logistics to the next dimension for our customers
while saving emissions."
The demonstration in Hamburg builds upon the foundations of the static proof of
concept (PoC) the partners conducted in July this year in Stuttgart. It laid
out a blueprint of how to implement VoloDrone operations in logistics
facilities globally.
The VoloDrone is an uncrewed, fully electric utility drone designed to carry
any of the six International Organization for Standardization (ISO) pallet
sizes, weighing up to 200 kilograms, over a 40-kilometer range. As one member
of Volocopter's robust UAM aircraft portfolio for transporting passengers
(VoloCity[https://www.volocopter.com/solutions/volocity/] and
]VoloConnect[https://www.volocopter.com/solutions/voloconnect/) and goods in
cities, the VoloDrone is positioned to be deployed where conventional transport
options reach their limits. In addition to developing the aircraft, Volocopter
is organizing the physical
(VoloPorts[https://www.volocopter.com/solutions/voloport/]) and digital
(VoloIQ[https://www.volocopter.com/solutions/voloiq/]) infrastructure to
support these services, which are set to launch in the next 2-3 years. VoloIQ
serves as the digital backbone for operations.
The VoloDrone's first flight took place in 2019. Since then, regular flight
tests have been conducted at various airfields in Germany. The drone itself is
9.15 meters in diameter, 2.15 meters tall, and has a 600-kilogram maximum
take-off weight (MTOW). Future VoloDrone operations will be fully electric with
autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) capabilities.
About Volocopter
Volocopter is building the world's first sustainable and scalable urban air
mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services for goods and people to
megacities worldwide. Volocopter leads and cooperates with partners in
infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem
necessary to "Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life." Volocopter has 400 employees
in offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore. The company has raised a total
of €322 million in equity form investors including Daimler, Geely, DB Schenker,
BlackRock, and Intel Capital amongst others. www.volocopter.com
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626551/Volocopter_Logo.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1658358/VoloDrone.jpg
Source: Volocopter
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