Successful First Public Flight of Volocopter's VoloDrone

Volocopter

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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