by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby
Premier cargo drone airline Dronamics announced the successful first flight of its Black Swan flagship aircraft at Bulgaria’s Balchik airport, showcasing the potential for the logistics industry to improve the efficiency of the transportation of products.
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Brothers Konstantin and Svilen Rangelov formed Dronamics out of a mutual desire to determine a faster, more affordable and environmentally-friendly method of delivering goods. The company’s ultimate goal is to make day delivery available to everyone, everywhere. Its successful completion of this milestone achievement is the result of months of ground testing and subscale flights. Two commercial airline pilots operated the Black Swan aircraft remotely from the Dronamics ground control station.
The Black Swan offers a maximum cargo capacity of 770 lbs, and is able to reach a speed of 200 kmh / 125 mph. It is able to travel a maximum range of 2,500 kmh / 1,550 mph, equivalent to the distance from New York City to Austin, Texas.
With its successful completion of the flight test, the company’s licensed cargo drone technology has been validated for commercial flights in Europe, which are scheduled to begin later this year to serve a range of industries including e-commerce, pharma, spare parts, and perishables with a rapid and affordable solution to fulfill evolving consumer needs.
“Since the day we first imagined what the Black Swan aircraft could look like, we’ve worked towards this flight,” said Dronamics Co-Founder and CTO Konstantin Rangelov. “Today we’ve made history and are proud to have demonstrated the validity of our drone technology.”
”It’s taken an enormous amount of hard work, belief and drive to prove that what we envisioned works,” said Dronamics Co-Founder and CEO Svilen Rangelov. “We can now focus on the next step, the roll-out of our commercial operations, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
This news follows Dronamics recent achievements of joining the UK’s first medical drone distribution center, raising a total of $40 million in pre-Series A funding, and its announcement of partnerships with Zero Petroleum and Cranfield Aerospace Solutions to utilize fossil-free alternatives as a power source for the Black Swan’s engine.
Read more:
- DRONAMICS: Could Massive Delivery Drones Replace Trucks and Change the World?
- UK Airport Consortium Develops Drone Delivery Network in Scotland
- Drone Cargo Delivery: University of Alaska to Build New Hangar for Base of Operations
- SkyDrive Funding: Japanese Flying Car and Cargo Drone Company Scores More than $66 Million
Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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