Introducing the Dronamics Black Swan long distance cargo drone

Bulgaria isn't exactly noted to be a center of aerospace innovation, yet, it seems a company there has developed a cargo drone capable of delivering around 800 lbs up to 1,550 miles. That drone would be the Black Swan.

The idea is to have a commercial cargo capability for airports that are significantly smaller than the major ones. Say, Concord, CA rather than Oakland and SFO. Or any of the smaller strips in the US or the rest of the world. Mostly this would be for the rest of the world.

800 lbs isn't much, but if you're a small town somewhere, just big enough for an airstrip (or had one) it might be interesting to see if this could do certain types of deliveries economically. The economics of it are in the air, afaiac. If it works, it could be as disruptive as any other cargo moving solution.

The goal is for the drone to be bought for $100k.

Now whether or not it can pass FAA regs, well...

www.thedrive.com...

That is pretty cool, I love the fact that they are using the KISS principle. The fact that they took into account ground maintenance, and workable for anyone with general aviation skills is a plus as well. Nice find.

This will put Amazon delivery out of business.

When manufactuers have the option of selling direct, factory to consumer, and you can get it there in a DAY just about anywhere?

With one drone being able to deliver to multiple locations?

That's the future...

a reply to: SR1TX

Amazon Delivery won't even notice. There's a reason that manufacturers send things out to DCs before sending them on to customers.

a reply to: SR1TX

That drone can only (probably) go to airports. You'd need something to take it from there. Probably some sort of self driving van (ultimately) with either an Atlas or drone or both to take it from there.

However!

Does this really scale? Economics are the real winner. Truckers beat planes most of the time.

a reply to: anzha

People don't realize how and why shipping works the way it does. What happens when they have less than a pallet to fly? They're not going to put one box on any kind of aircraft from the manufacturer and send it to the person that ordered it. Trucks and DCs don't add a lot to shipping time over aircraft, and are a lot more flexible.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It's always about money. Delivery from warehouses to homes is such a tight business now moneywise, the only way to make it work without raising prices is to automate it: drones, self driving vehicles, Atlas bots, etc.

Long haul...that's a rather different beast. Only thing really to be improved is the self driving trucks and those will take a bit longer. Other possibilities are ways to pull the cargo off the freeways in congested areas, like the SF Bay Area. Pulling the trucks off 101 and 880 would help a lot. OTOH, if that cargo is flying, then interacting with the airports...

Perhaps better to just run a new bridge from the San Leandro Bay to India Basin (880 to 280) locally...