FeaturedMiddle EastNews

Sabrewing Aircraft Company signs agreement with Saudi Arabia’s ADMC for 102 Rhaegal‑B VTOL cargo drones

Sabrew­ing Air­craft Com­pa­ny has announced an exclu­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tion agree­ment with Ara­bi­an Devel­op­ment & Mar­ket­ing Co. (ADMC), which includes an order for 102 Rhaegal‑B VTOL car­go air­craft worth $600 mil­lion.

The five-year renew­able deal will be exclu­sive to Sau­di Ara­bia, the Gulf Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil (GCC) — which includes the coun­tries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Sau­di Ara­bia and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates — and the Pan-African Region.

The agree­ment includes estab­lish­ing air­craft assem­bly, main­te­nance, repair, and over­haul (MRO) facil­i­ties through­out the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia and Africa, to ser­vice the Rhaegal‑B fleet and will pro­vide tech­nol­o­gy jobs to the region. ADMC has said it will soon begin tak­ing addi­tion­al air­craft orders through­out the GCC and Africa.

Ed De Reyes, Chair­man and CEO of Sabrew­ing Air­craft Com­pa­ny, said: “We are very pleased to have ADMC as our mid­dle-east­ern busi­ness part­ner. It’s a per­fect fit for Sabrew­ing and ADMC man­age­ment in our mutu­al quest to pio­neer unmanned VTOL car­go air­craft development/manufacturing and dom­i­nate this mar­ket sec­tor by being the first-to-mar­ket this extra­or­di­nary air­craft.

“As the first com­mer­cial pur­chase of an unmanned air­craft, this is real­ly ground­break­ing and paving the way for a whole new indus­try.”

Ayman Zeibak, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of ADMC, added: “This agree­ment brings an emerg­ing-tech­nol­o­gy, heavy-lift, unmanned car­go capa­bil­i­ty to the Mid­dle East­ern and the Pan-African mar­ket­place. It also brings advanced tech­nolo­gies in com­pos­ites man­u­fac­tur­ing, drone devel­op­ment and avion­ic sen­sor inte­gra­tion to our region.

“In addi­tion to trans­port­ing crit­i­cal sup­plies to our most remote regions, high-tech local jobs are being cre­at­ed. This pro­gram tru­ly sup­ports the vision for Sau­di Arabia’s future.”

Sabrew­ing Air­craft unveiled a pro­to­type of its Rhaegal‑A test vehi­cle at the US Air Force’s Agili­ty Prime pro­gramme in May 2020. De Reyes and Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer Oliv­er Gar­row also gave more details about Sabrew­ing’s hybrid-elec­tric Rhaegal‑B.

Sabrew­ing Air­craft unveiled its RhaegalA test vehi­cle at Agili­ty Primes vir­tu­al event ear­li­er this year

The air­craft is capa­ble of tak­ing off and land­ing ver­ti­cal­ly in mud, snow, ice, deep sand or unim­proved land­ing areas — at speeds of up to 200 knots/229 miles per hour.

It can be remote­ly pilot­ed for com­mer­cial oper­a­tions and is ful­ly autonomous for mil­i­tary appli­ca­tions, with the abil­i­ty to car­ry pay­loads of up to 5,400lb (2,450kg) and fly at alti­tudes of up to 22,000ft for about 1,800km. The wings fold on the ground for easy ground han­dling and in the air dur­ing hov­er for land­ing in tight spaces,

Sabrew­ing Air­craft has said the Rhaegal’s fold-up nose — sim­i­lar to a Boe­ing 747 freighter air­craft — requires no spe­cial equip­ment for load­ing or unload­ing car­go in remote loca­tions.

All of its air­craft designs fea­ture fold­ing wings, fold-up noses, full pal­let-sized car­go access, all-weath­er oper­a­tion, and a first-of-its-kind ten-sen­sor Detect and Avoid (D&A) sys­tem, to autonomous­ly nav­i­gate a path around con­flict­ing obsta­cles and oth­er air traf­fic.

ADMC will soon be ten­der­ing new offers for pro­duc­tion-line posi­tion orders for the high-capac­i­ty, heavy lift, unmanned car­go air­craft, secured by deposits, for deliv­er­ies begin­ning in the fall of 2021.

Steven Chikos, ADMC’s Senior Aerospace/Defense Advi­sor, added: “After per­form­ing an in-depth analy­sis of sev­er­al heavy-lift car­go drone com­pa­nies in the Unit­ed States, Europe and Asia, Sabrewing’s design, with­out excep­tion, offers tremen­dous capa­bil­i­ty and oper­ates at a frac­tion of the cost of oth­er car­go air­craft.

“Oper­at­ing expens­es are pro­ject­ed to be 50 per cent to 60 per cent less than sim­i­lar pay­load capac­i­ty manned car­go air­craft. The Sabrew­ing – ADMC team is poised to bring this air­craft to mar­ket years ahead of its com­pe­ti­tion.”

Avatar photo

Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

eVTOL Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769