Odys Aviation and ST Engineering Sign MoU for Hybrid-Electric Power System in DrN-600 UAS

Odys Avi­a­tion and ST Engi­neer­ing’s Com­mer­cial Aero­space busi­ness have signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing to devel­op a hybrid-elec­tric pow­er sys­tem for the DrN-600 medi­um-lift car­go unmanned air­craft sys­tem (UAS).

The agree­ment posi­tions Odys as the hybrid archi­tec­ture devel­op­er, ini­tial pro­to­type sup­pli­er, and poten­tial scaled pro­duc­tion part­ner for the DrN-600 EHPS pro­gram. The com­pa­nies plan to val­i­date tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial para­me­ters as an ini­tial step, with the inten­tion of enter­ing a defin­i­tive agree­ment.

Under the MOU, the par­ties intend to enter a Defin­i­tive Agree­ment under which Odys will serve as the hybrid archi­tec­ture devel­op­er, ini­tial pro­to­type sup­pli­er, and scaled pro­duc­tion part­ner for future ten­ta­tive demands under the DrN-600 EHPS pro­gram.

The pro­gram will inte­grate Odys’ pro­pri­etary Hybrid Pow­er Sys­tem, cur­rent­ly avail­able in out­puts rang­ing from 20 kW to 4 MW, into ST Engi­neer­ing’s DrN-600. The DrN-600 is cur­rent­ly designed to car­ry up to 100 kg of car­go and achieve ranges beyond 300 km. Odys will lead eval­u­a­tion of the pow­er sys­tem archi­tec­ture, weight and vol­ume opti­miza­tion, total cost of own­er­ship, and a devel­op­ment roadmap designed to accel­er­ate the path to pro­duc­tion.

The MOU also sets out fur­ther avenues for col­lab­o­ra­tion to inte­grate ST Engi­neer­ing’s Ground Con­trol Sta­tion capa­bil­i­ties with Odys’ unmanned plat­forms, expand­ing the poten­tial scope of the part­ner­ship across both propul­sion and mis­sion sys­tems. “For five years, our team has designed, built, and flown pro­pri­etary Hybrid Pow­er Sys­tems that deliv­er range and endurance oth­ers can’t match,” said James Dor­ris, CEO of Odys Avi­a­tion. “This agree­ment is a mile­stone: for the first time, we’re bring­ing that proven propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy to a part­ner’s aer­i­al plat­form. ST Engi­neer­ing is a world leader in aero­space and unmanned sys­tems, and their con­fi­dence in Odys val­i­dates what we’ve believed from the start, that our Hybrid Pow­er Sys­tem is a cat­e­go­ry-defin­ing capa­bil­i­ty in its own right.”

“The DrN-600 is a high-per­for­mance, inno­v­a­tive UAS plat­form designed to reli­ably trans­port heav­ier pay­loads to remote areas over longer dis­tances,” said Teong Soo Soon, SVP & Head, Unmanned Air Sys­tems at ST Engineering’s Com­mer­cial Aero­space busi­ness. “As we con­tin­ue to bring it to mar­ket and expand its prac­ti­cal use cas­es, it is impor­tant that we work with the right part­ner to enhance its capa­bil­i­ties in a focused and mean­ing­ful way. Hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion is one path­way to fur­ther strength­en the DrN-600’s flex­i­bil­i­ty, endurance and oper­a­tional rel­e­vance.”

Odys Hybrid Power System: Proven Across the Power Spectrum

Odys’ pro­pri­etary Hybrid Pow­er Sys­tem is engi­neered to deliv­er reli­able, high-den­si­ty pow­er across a wide per­for­mance enve­lope, from 20 kW to more than 4 MW. Built on five years of flight-proven expe­ri­ence, the sys­tem com­bines the endurance and pow­er out­put required for the most demand­ing mis­sions with a mod­u­lar archi­tec­ture adapt­able to a broad range of air­craft, defense, and ener­gy appli­ca­tions.

For heavy-lift unmanned logis­tics, hybrid-elec­tric pow­er offers a com­pelling com­bi­na­tion of extend­ed range, mul­ti-hour endurance, and reduced oper­at­ing costs rel­a­tive to con­ven­tion­al propul­sion, enabling oper­a­tors to move crit­i­cal car­go far­ther and more effi­cient­ly across the envi­ron­ments where it mat­ters most.

ST Engineering’s DrN-600 Medium-lift Cargo UAS: Built for Versatility, Scalability and Heavier Payloads

ST Engineering’s DrN-600 is part of its ST Engi­neer­ing’s DroNet solu­tion, tar­get­ing com­mer­cial car­go oper­a­tions with a focus on auton­o­my, com­pli­ance, and eco­nom­ics. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is tar­get­ed for 2028, with pro­to­type tri­als ongo­ing.

With a max­i­mum take-off mass of under 600 kg, it is capa­ble of car­ry­ing up to 100 kg in a large car­go com­part­ment that sup­ports var­i­ous stan­dard pal­let sizes. The DrN-600 is engi­neered to max­i­mize per­for­mance with­in glob­al reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works, build­ing on oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence accu­mu­lat­ed since 2018 through small­er UAS plat­forms. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the DrN-600 is tar­get­ed for com­ple­tion by 2028. Mean­while, oper­a­tional pro­to­type tri­als will be con­duct­ed with prospec­tive cus­tomers in par­al­lel to gath­er user feed­back.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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