UrbanLink Air Mobility Collaborates with Traverse Aero “For 40 Hybrid-Electric eVTOL Cargo Drones”

Flori­da-based, Urban­Link Air Mobil­i­ty, announced this week a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Cal­i­for­nia-based, Tra­verse Aero, to expand its fleet by adding 40 hybrid-elec­tric eVTOL car­go drones called Orca, reports a press release.

This drone “is the world’s first ful­ly autonomous eVTOL designed specif­i­cal­ly for pal­letised car­go,” explains the release. “It boasts a 600-mile range and deliv­ers car­go weigh­ing up to 550 pounds by using bat­ter­ies and sus­tain­able avi­a­tion fuel (SAF) to achieve an 80 per­cent reduc­tion in CO2 emis­sions.” 

It con­tin­ues, “Its rapid response capa­bil­i­ties, cou­pled with its heavy lift and long range, make it invalu­able for first respon­ders and ide­al for large-scale, human­i­tar­i­an relief efforts. Designed for seam­less inte­gra­tion into exist­ing logis­tics sup­ply chains, a fea­ture that sets it apart in the eVTOL indus­try, it is also well-suit­ed to many com­mer­cial and nation­al secu­ri­ty appli­ca­tions.”

While lor­ries have tra­di­tion­al­ly dom­i­nat­ed pal­letised car­go trans­port these vehi­cles con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to green­house gas emis­sions, so drones can play a trans­for­ma­tive role in the sec­tor, offer­ing a clean­er, more sus­tain­able alter­na­tive, reduc­ing the car­bon foot­print of sup­ply chain oper­a­tions.

Ed Wegel, Urban­Link Founder and Chair­man, com­ment­ed, ”The Orca drone not only pro­vides our cus­tomers with an envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly deliv­ery ser­vice, it also allows us to sup­port first respon­ders and local com­mu­ni­ties in the wake of a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter. This part­ner­ship marks anoth­er step for­ward in our mis­sion to deliv­er sus­tain­able, high-val­ue, end-to-end trans­porta­tion across air, sea and ground.”

The Flori­da-based com­pa­ny is to ini­tial­ly deploy Orca drones in Puer­to Rico, work­ing with gov­ern­ment and relief agen­cies to deliv­er essen­tial sup­plies, equip­ment and res­cue ser­vices. In Mia­mi, these drones will sup­port relief oper­a­tions and trans­port addi­tion­al bag­gage and car­go for pas­sen­gers trav­el­ling via UrbanLink’s eVTOL air­craft and sea ves­sels.

Scott Park­er, Founder and CEO of Tra­verse Aero, remarked, “This order val­i­dates the Orca as the plat­form of choice for Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) car­go and human­i­tar­i­an relief. It also ensures we remain close­ly aligned with the rapid­ly evolv­ing eVTOL and AAM indus­try and laser-focused on our cus­tomer require­ments.”

Since launch­ing this April, Urban­Link has rapid­ly expand­ed its fleet to include eVTOL air­craft, the 9‑passenger Evi­a­ton ALICE air­craft, and elec­tric sea ves­sels from Regent Craft and Artemis Tech­nolo­gies. The com­pa­ny is cur­rent­ly focused on Miami/South Flori­da, Los Angeles/Southern Cal­i­for­nia and the Caribbean, with addi­tion­al routes and regions to be announced in the near future.

For more infor­ma­tion 

https://www.flyurbanlink.com

https://traverseaero.com/

(Top image: Urban­Link Air Mobil­i­ty)

For the lat­est news, insights and con­tent regard­ing the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket, please join the fol­low­ing eVTOL Insights chan­nels: What­sApp, Face­book, Insta­gram, Spo­ti­fy, Apple Pod­casts, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.