Drone Delivery Canada Corp., has successfully conducted Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) test flights in Canada.
The success of these flights, which took place in Foremost, Alberta, demostrate that DDC’s BVLOS technical capability has now passed the most important landmark which enables the DDC platform to run commercially. Commercial operations are forecast to be based on a revenue model that comprises of integration fees, set up fees, and on going re-occurring revenue. DDC’s revenue is based on a traditional SaaS model format.
“We are the only pure play drone delivery company that has ever successfully achieved BVLOS flights under Transport Canada’s oversight,” says Richard Buzbuzian, President of Drone Delivery Canada. “This is a major milestone for our company. With this success in hand, we now have greater visibility than ever before to operate commercially. Additionally, more than ever, we are also seeing international inquiry for our platform. This win has been a major step forward for us, both domestically and internationally.”
The systems that were tested predominantly include DDC’s proprietary FLYTE management system, its avoidance technology, and communications platform. During the flights, DDC’s Mission Control Centre in Toronto, 2,500 km away, successfully monitored and record telemetry in real time for each flight. DDC is set to become the first and only drone logistics compliant operator approved by Transport Canada, which is expected to occur in Q4, 2017 followed by commercial operations in Q1, 2018.
“The success of these flights now allows us to expand our testing with both new and existing clients that include large corporations and government organizations in Canada and abroad,” says Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada. “Given Canada’s geography and some of the obvious and social opportunities in Northern Canada, we believe the best place to start commercializing this platform is in our own backyard, then internationally as we prove out our systems.”
Here is a video of DDC in Foremost Alberta, performing Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) testing
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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