Wingcopter, logistics company team up for deliveries in Mexico
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
A German drone development company and a Mexican logistics company are teaming up to deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach corners of the Latin American country.
Wingcopter, a developer and operator of all-electric uncrewed aircraft systems based in Weiterstadt, Germany, recently announced its partnership with Tultitlán, Mexico-based Sincronía Logística, a leading player in that country’s pharmaceutical logistics market. Under the agreement, Sincronía Logística will deploy Wingcopter’s all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) drones to help overcome the challenging terrain and limited transportation infrastructure found in many regions of Mexico.
“We are really excited about this partnership in Mexico,” Wingcopter’s Chief Revenue Officer Armando Koerig Gessinger said in an interview. “It’s incredible how much these customers have invested in automation and robotics, and drones are part of that.”
In August, the partners conducted a successful flight demonstration for the Cruz Roja Mexicana Querétaro, the Mexican Red Cross’s division in the state of Querétaro. The two companies expect to begin making regular medical supply deliveries sometime toward the end of November, Gessinger said.
Initially, the operations will deploy two Wingcopter 198 aircraft to fly in the north-central region of Mexico, with the program undergoing a gradual expansion over the next several months.
“We have a fair idea of the challenges of that country,” Gessinger said. “When transporting valuable goods from point A to point B, you always face some kind of risk.” Rugged terrain, lack of a good surface transportation system and ongoing security issues in parts of the country often make the transportation of valuable medical and supply equipment problematic.
“They want to address these challenges by the use of drones,” he said. While drone delivery companies in the U.S. and elsewhere frequently use multi-copters to transport food and other relatively low-weight commercial items, the type of deliveries Sincronía Logística plans to conduct requires an aerial vehicle capable of delivering much larger payloads for longer distances and at higher speeds.
“That means you need to hit regions that are separated by 50 to 60 kilometers (31 to 37 miles) and to cover that in less than an hour.” Gessinger said. Under the partnership agreement, the German company will manufacture the drones and supply them, along with licensing, software and training, to Sincronía Logística, which will conduct the delivery operations.
Gessinger said Wingcopter has an assigned commitment with the Mexican company to supply 30 drones over a period of 18 months.
The aerial delivery operations will deploy Wingcopter 198 drones, so named because of its 198-centimeter (about 6.5-foot) wing span. The vehicle carries a payload of 4.7 kilograms, (about 10 pounds) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 25 kilos (about 55 pounds).
Its patented tilt-rotor technology allows the aircraft to take off vertically, then once airborne, switch to vertical flight, in which it can reach a cruising speed of 90 kilometers per hour (about 56 mph). Its design features winglets, which extend the surface of the wing, making it fly more efficiently in fixed-wing mode without compromising the drone’s compact size. The aircraft is designed to withstand strong winds and fly over long distances, even in harsh weather conditions.
In a statement, Diego Garcia, Sincronía Logística’s director of business excellence, said the agreement with Wingcopter helps fulfill his company’s commitment to setting a new standard for modernization and innovation in healthcare logistics in Mexico.
“Through the use of the Wingcopter 198, we are not simply improving delivery times—we are giving patients faster access to the treatments and medicines they urgently need,” he said. “For us, this project goes beyond technology; it is a philanthropic initiative that embodies our commitment to saving lives and supporting the healthcare professionals.”
Expanding global reach
Gessinger said that while the current project is focused on Mexico, Wingcopter also is seeking to expands its reach into other global markets.
“Mexico is a very important country and we are kicking off with this customer there. There are some other countries in Latin America, like Costa Rica, where we are kicking off as well with local partners,” he said.
The company is also setting its sights on the large North American market, comprising the U.S. and Canada, and is working to obtain its type certificate from the FAA in order to operate in American airspace.
“On the other side of the globe, Japan is another target region where we’re investing a lot,” he said. In that country, Wingcopter has invested in a partnership with a Japanese trading company that specialized in aerospace technology.
The company is also active in several countries on the African continent, where drones are frequently flown to deliver humanitarian supplies to remote regions and where getting government approvals to conduct drone operations is less burdensome than in more developed Western countries, Gessinger said.
“It’s easier to fly in countries like Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia,” he said. for example. “These countries are important for us for testing and proving concepts, creating experience and accumulating flight hours.” In addition, Wingcopter’s African projects help serve the humanitarian needs of those countries where it operates.
“That’s basically the initial step of commercialization of Wingcopter in these regions. Of course, Europe plays a very important role for us as well, but as a startup, you need to prioritize projects, so for us, Europe is coming,” he said.
Gessinger said that in addition to marketing drones that deliver medical supplies – such as vaccines, laboratory samples and blood — to remote areas, the company has begun marketing unmanned aerial systems designed for other uses.
“The second use case we are exploring, that’s something a little newer,” he said. “We are exploring applications with a wider array of sensors integrated with the drone for surveying and inspection of industrial linear infrastructure.”
He said UAVs equipped with such sensor technology can be used to create digital maps and 3D models of pipelines, railways, power lines and other kinds of infrastructure that has a long linear footprint.
Read more:
- Wingcopter Secures New Funding and Strengthens Leadership Team
- Wingcopter Uses Ansys Simulation to Improve Drone Delivery of Medical Supplies [VIDEO]
- Wingcopter and ITOCHU Advance Drone Delivery in Japan with New Certification Process
Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
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