A2Z Drone Delivery Launches RDSX Pelican Hybrid VTOL
U.S‑based A2Z drone delivery announced this week the launch of its RDSX Pelican Hybrid VTOL, reports a press release. The company’s test facility for over a year now, is located in Anji County, a scenic mountain bamboo forest, close to the prefecture-level city of Huzhou in northwestern Zhejiang province, China, allowing the company’s engineers to trial the Pelican on a daily basis under natural surroundings with diverse topography and environmental conditions.
The release states, “The new Pelican leverages a hybrid VTOL airframe with no control surfaces to combine the reliability and flight stability of a multirotor platform, with the extended range of a fixed wing craft. With no ailerons, elevator or rudder, the Pelican’s durable-yet-simple design eliminates common points of failure and exponentially extends operational time between maintenance overhauls.”
It adds, “Designed to meet the 55-pound takeoff weight limitation for FAA Part 107 compliance, the Pelican can carry payloads of 5 kilos on missions up to 40 kilometres roundtrip.”
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The Pelican can be employed for extended range operations and delivers payloads from altitude with the company’s RDS2 drone delivery winch. This hybrid VTOL has no control surfaces which maximises reliability and whether for residential food and medical deliveries or aerial mapping, drone inspection, forestry services, search and rescue operations, water sample collection, offshore deliveries, mining, etc., the craft “is available in multiple configurations to meet diverse mission parameters.”
The release continues, “For missions where the drone is able to safely land at its destination, a simple servo-release mechanism can release payloads and expand the Pelican’s payload capacity… With no servos to replace and minimal moving parts, the Pelican’s design extends the time between recommended maintenance overhauls to reduce downtime and cost. The Pelican is also designed to minimise operational costs for commercial drone delivery fleets and offers an attractive 13 cents/kg/km operating cost.”
Aaron Zhang, Founder and CEO of A2Z Drone Delivery, commented, “Our development is not just about maximising performance, it’s about creating usable tools designed to get work done. The new RDSX Pelican is an efficient, long range delivery platform in that last-mile fleet.”

The Engineering Team from Anji County (Aaron Zhang third from left)
RDSX Pelican Features Include:-
: Cruise Speed – 45 knot cruising speed to traverse routes quickly.
: Max Payload Capacity – Configurable up to 7–8 kg payload capacity.
: Parcel Pickup – Retrieve payloads up to 5 kg while maintaining hover at a safe altitude.
: Max Range – 50 km max range with no payload/40 km max range with 5 kg payload.
: Max Takeoff Weight – 55lb.
: Operational Costs – 13 cents per kilogram per kilometre.
: A2Z 4G Link – The automatic network selector seamlessly transitions between multiple 4G networks and a mesh radio link to optimise connectivity.
: A2Z Ground Control Station – Portable ground control station enabled with A2Z QGroundControl.
: Pricing and Configurations — Starting at USD29,000, the Pelican is offered in multiple model variations.

Trials Occur on a Daily Basis
The company which originated in 2016 as a U.S drone delivery project from the research-based Brown University, is now accepting pre-orders for the RDSX Pelican that will be fulfilled on a first-come-first-served basis with initial deliveries expected for June 2023. A2Z Drone Delivery will display the craft at the upcoming AUVSI XPONENTIAL (May 9th-11th in Denver, CO), where it can found at booth 1830.
For more information
https://www.a2zdronedelivery.com/
(All images: A2Z)