Spright to purchase up to 140 of Dufour Aerospace’s Aero2 unmanned tilt-wing aircraft in major deal

Spright, the drone divi­sion of Air Meth­ods, the lead­ing provider of heli­copter emer­gency med­ical ser­vices, has announced an agree­ment to pur­chase up to 140 of Dufour Aero­space’s Aero2 unmanned tilt-wing air­craft.

The mul­ti-year and mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar agree­ment, which was announced dur­ing a press con­fer­ence today (Fri­day), rep­re­sents the largest com­mit­ment by an oper­a­tor to-date for the Aero2 design, as well as one of the biggest civil­ian unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cle pur­chas­es in US his­to­ry.

Joseph Resnik, pres­i­dent of Spright, said: “Dufour Aero­space has devel­oped an impres­sive Swiss Army Knife for unmanned air mobil­i­ty that will meet your com­mit­ment for its vision and to the tech­no­log­i­cal approach, in which we are proud to be the first oper­a­tor in the US. It will enable us to serve the crit­i­cal goods dis­tri­b­u­tion mar­kets effi­cient­ly.”

As part of the agree­ment between the two par­ties, Spright will also assist Dufour in obtain­ing FAA-type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for Aero2, includ­ing tech­ni­cal, data and flight activ­i­ty sup­port for demon­stra­tion pur­pos­es. This will include dura­bil­i­ty, fail­ure and reli­a­bil­i­ty test­ing and detect-and-avoid capa­bil­i­ties. Spright will also be the exclu­sive Aero2 ser­vice, main­te­nance and train­ing part­ner for third par­ties in North Amer­i­ca.

The air­craft expands Spright’s oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve the health­care com­mu­ni­ty by car­ry­ing heav­ier pay­load over longer dis­tances. This trans­lates to more patient sam­ples, larg­er tis­sue spec­i­mens and organs, as well as heav­ier sup­plies and equip­ment being trans­port­ed.

Resnik said: “Our main pur­pose is for med­i­cine for med­ical sup­plies and spec­i­mens. Part of Air Meth­ods’ mis­sion is not just save lives, but to improve patient out­comes. And a big part of that is mov­ing that type of med­i­cine — whether it be the equip­ment or spec­i­mens over medi­um to long-ranges in a more effi­cient man­ner. By hav­ing Aero2, it will give us the abil­i­ty to do that — espe­cial­ly in rur­al loca­tions where the health­care is not as effi­cient.”

Resnik added that any North Amer­i­can oper­a­tions or cus­tomers which are fly­ing air­craft, Spright’s 50,000 sq.ft. facil­i­ty in Gilbert, Ari­zona, will able to pro­vide main­te­nance ser­vices through this part­ner­ship.

Based in Switzer­land, Dufour Aero­space is focus­ing on the emer­gency med­ical ser­vices mar­ket and move­ment of time-sen­si­tive, crit­i­cal car­go.

Aero2 has been specif­i­cal­ly designed for the trans­porta­tion of crit­i­cal car­go such as med­ical sup­plies for up to 40 kilo­grams (88 pounds) across medi­um- to long-range dis­tances. In terms of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Dufour expects the Aero2 to be cer­ti­fied with EASA towards the end of 2024 with deliv­er­ies com­menc­ing from the begin­ning of 2025.

Thomas Pfam­mat­ter, CEO of Dufour Aero­space, said: “Today is indeed a very spe­cial day for Dufour Aero­space and for the peo­ple who have helped and sup­port­ed us for many years. Spright pro­vides us with an even bet­ter under­stand what drone oper­a­tors and their cus­tomers need for their dai­ly oper­a­tions.

“With an expe­ri­enced and ambi­tious part­ner like them at our side, we will be able to make Aero2 an even bet­ter prod­uct that will help solve some of the ver­ti­cal car­go trans­porta­tion chal­lenges in an effi­cient and safe way. We are delight­ed by the con­fi­dence shown by Spright in Dufour Aero­space, evi­denced by today’s pur­chase announce­ment for the Aero2.”

Dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, Pfam­mat­ter also stressed the tim­ing of this part­ner­ship, espe­cial­ly when the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic prompt­ed the need to quick­ly deliv­er med­ical goods in an effi­cient man­ner.

“More and more pri­vate play­ers, insti­tu­tions and gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions are inter­est­ed in using long-range drone capa­bil­i­ties for the ben­e­fit of peo­ple and also to improve the effi­cien­cy of oper­a­tions. While there remains some ques­tions around the safe use of drones, depend­ing on the region, there is a dynam­ic towards open­ing up more ben­e­fi­cial areas of appli­ca­tions.”

Terms of the pur­chase, devel­op­ment, and ser­vice agree­ment between the par­ties have not been dis­closed. Flight test­ing of the Aero2 is cur­rent­ly under way in Zurich, with Pfam­mat­ter con­firm­ing there are cur­rent­ly two pro­to­types and the next ver­sion of the air­craft is now in the design phase.

With Aero2 being designed for remote­ly pilot­ed oper­a­tions, the com­pa­ny is also devel­op­ing its Aero3 air­craft. This eight-seater pilot­ed mod­el will be used specif­i­cal­ly for air ambu­lance and Health, Edu­ca­tion, Main­te­nance and Sup­port (HEMS) oper­a­tions.

“It’s basi­cal­ly in first pro­to­type design but as we see such a huge demand for Aero2, we want our team to focus on this air­craft, bring it to the mar­ket and have this ear­ly rev­enue oppor­tu­ni­ty. That is the best poten­tial right now,” Pfam­mat­ter added.