Drones with a range of up to 2,500 km, created by the Bulgarian company Dronamics, will start flying for the German logistics group Hellmann from 2022. In a Reuters report from London, executives of the two companies say they will try in this way to build a model to circumvent complicated and too-long supply chains, Dnevnik.bg reported
This problem was particularly exacerbated last year because of pandemic-induced flight reductions and container congestion at major ports. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics says Dronamics‘ drones are “a real game changer”.
“It doesn’t mean that tomorrow we will transport 80% of our freight with drones, but for shipments in continental Europe it is an important addition,” Jan Kleinellastus, COO for air freight at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, told Reuters. He said drones do a good job for emergency supplies such as spare parts for machinery, vaccines, blood plasma and pharmaceuticals.
Dronamics, which is also a representative of the Bulgarian Aviation Industry Association (BAIA) was founded by Svilen and Konstantin Rangelov and today has an international team as well as contracts with 39 airports in 13 countries. According to Svilen Rangelov, the goal is to have 60 drones in use by next year for several customers, including Hellmann.
“Our planes have a standard engine, they are already certified and the regulators know them well, so we reduce the risks as much as we can. We are also working on several issues like encryption to protect them from hacking attacks and manipulation of GPS data,” he adds.
It’s about the model that the company called “The Black Swan” – “because it sounded like something impossible at first, but we persisted.” It can carry up to 350 kg of cargo at a speed of 200 km/h. A 400 m runway is enough for take-off and landing and for now the drones will only fly between airports, but according to their creators they can also land on short primitive runways. The latter means that they will be able to fly from point to point, delivering the cargo the same day, which is far from possible over land and water with the current logistics organisation.
Less than a week ago, the company announced that it had added three German airports to its network – Paderborn-Lipstad, Rostock-Laage and Veese – enabling it to serve nearly 13 million people within an hour’s flight.