Watch Video: “Black Swan Takes to the Sky for Maiden Flight”
Bulgaria-based Dronamics, achieved something very special last week. The company’s flagship cargo drone called Black Swan, successfully achieved its maiden flight, flying 16 miles in less than 10 minutes, remotely flown by two commercial airline pilots, based at Bulgaria’s Balchik Airport, reports a press release.
The bearded Rangelov brothers behind this achievement had vowed not to shave their face growth until the Black Swan’s first flight. Last week they not only shed any primary concerns about the drone’s technology, but their beards too. For them, the drone venture had begun over nine years ago, leading to nine years of blood, sweat and tears.
Konstantin Rangelov, Dronamics CEO, commented, “Since the day we first imagined what the Black Swan aircraft could look like, we’ve worked towards this flight. Today, we’ve made history and are proud to have demonstrated the validity of our drone technology.”
While the company is targeting commercial cargo flights in Europe later this year, the maiden flight remains part of a steady progress towards gaining full certification from EASA.
Brother Svilen Ragelov, Dronamics CTO, remarked, “It’s taken an enormous amount of hard work, belief, and drive to prove that what we envisioned works. We can now focus on the next step, the rollout of our commercial operations, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Watch Video
Black Swan is designed to replace smaller delivery road vans. The aircraft’s maximum payload of 770 lbs places it in line with middle-mile ground transportation. And with a range of more than 1,500 miles, it’ll be able to cover the distance between Chicago and Los Angeles or any two points in mainland Europe. The drone also has a capacity of 125 cubic feet, similar to that of a small van.
Dronamics is aiming to halve overall costs, reduce delivery times by up to 80 percent, and remove up to 60 percent of emissions compared to other modes of transport, including air freight. Flying within the company’s network of drone hubs, it is focusing on time-sensitive deliveries in such industries as e‑commerce, health care, perishable goods, engineering and mining.
The company is able to bring down the cost of these trips through autonomous flight, allowing it to offer deliveries for less than USD2.50 per pound, or 50 percent less than existing same-day air cargo services.
Last week’s maiden voyage is a major step forward and Dronamics is well positioned for its planned commercial launch later this year: At last year’s European Business aviation Convention and Expo trade show in Switzerland, the company announced it had received an EU ‘Light UAS Operator Certificate’ for a drone cargo airline. Awarded by ‘Transport Malta Civil Aviation Directorate’, the licence allows Dronamics to fly across EU member states (self-authorisation), including Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. Malta will probably become the company’s base for European operations and, along with Italy, the site of its first commercial flights.
Dronamics has raised a total of USD40 million in pre-Series A funding via early-stage funds and angel investors from 12 countries and is co-funded by the European Union ‘European Innovation Council’, Europe’s flagship innovation program. The company will also leverage the mass production partnerships it signed last year with Cotesa Holdings in Europe and Quickstep in Australia.
The company also has further agreements with Zero Petroleum and Cranfield Aerospace, supporting green-energy alternatives to power Black Swan’s engine, which does not rely on electric or hybrid-electric power like the aircraft of rivals Elroy Air, Drone Delivery Canada or Destinus.
And via its participation in the ‘Care & Equity — Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland (CAELUS) Program’, a consortium led by AGS Airports to develop the U.K.’s first nationwide medical drone distribution network, Dronamics will complete more Black Swan flight trials by 2024. CAELUS hopes to enable various forms of delivery including blood, organs and essential medicines which could make Dronamics a valuable and important partner.
For more information
(Images: Dronamics)
