AVN: The Drone That Can Carry A 200 Pound Payload

A new comer in the drone delivery game is breaking with tradition, focusing less on merchandise and food, more on life-saving mechanical parts and medical supplies. Drone start up Volans-i is building UAVs that can deliver heavy payloads over longer distances than ever before. They say the drones are capable of flying over 500 miles, over 12 hours, and can manage up to a 200 pound payload. How? By combining several forms of flying that traditionally have been used separately. The drones are fixed wing, hence the long range of flight, but use traditional quadcopter motors and props to assist with vertical take-off and landing. They also run off of both batteries and fuel, something not typically seen in UAVs. The batteries are for the take off and landing, the fuel is to power the flight. They hope that these capabilities, along with its ability to land on any flat 15 x 15 surface, make it very attractive to businesses looking to deliver heavy equipment. Customers worried about operating the technology have nothing to fear – they would pay only per delivery– they’d have nothing to do with the mechanics of the technology CEO Hannan Parvizian told CNBC that when he worked at Tesla, they had problems on a daily basis with trying to deliver parts to their service centers quickly. The idea of someone combining drones with the component of b2b OR business to business deliveries is what inspired them to build the Volans-I drone. Their competitors aren’t within the drone industry, they’re companies like UPS and FedEx. The CEO says the competitive advantage lies in timeliness – he says they can get the job done 5 times faster. Follow AirVūz News for more information on what's happening in the drone industry.