Offshore Deliveries – RotorDrone

German logistics and aviation holding Zeitfracht Group and its subsidiary German Airways will likely be among the many first corporations worldwide to commercially deploy drones in logistics. In a joint letter of intent with the German producer Wingcopter, the businesses have agreed to buy 17 Wingcopter 198 supply drones and purchase choices to order a further 115 drones in two additional tranches by the top of 2023. The plane are to be deployed from the second half of 2024 – initially offshore, for instance for the supply of spare elements to wind farms.

The Zeitfracht Group is already efficiently working on this enterprise with its specialised transport firm OPUS Marine. Because the supply drones should be capable to land with pinpoint accuracy on a transferring ship, their use will likely be technically demanding. German Airways and Wingcopter will work intently collectively on the event of this function.

The Wingcopters will take off from Rostock Airport, which has additionally been a part of the Zeitfracht Group because the starting of the 12 months and presents the Wingcopter growth group a really perfect surroundings for prolonged take a look at flights in addition to premises for measurements and the analysis of the information collected within the course of.

Holding an Air Operator Certificates (AOC), German Airways already fulfills important necessities to function Wingcopter’s supply drones within the “particular class” and, later, within the “licensed class”. As well as, German Airways can be IOSA licensed and thus operates in line with the very best internationally agreed requirements of the worldwide aviation authority IATA.

Wingcopters can carry a payload of as much as 5 kilograms and – relying on the payload – can cowl distances between 75 and 110 kilometers. The plane had been chosen by German Airways due to their extraordinary wind- and climate resistance and their globally main payload-to-range ratio. They take off vertically, with out requiring extra infrastructure, after which transfer ahead horizontally in flight like a standard plane. Because of their purely electrical propulsion, Wingcopter supply drones additionally contribute to zero-emission logistics.

Zeitfracht CEO Wolfram Simon-Schröter: “On the Zeitfracht Group, we’re very artistic and all the time considering utilizing new applied sciences in a market-leading means. We consider the time is now ripe for the business use of drones, for instance for the supply of spare elements to offshore wind farms. With German Airways, our Rostock Airport and the expertise of our transport firm OPUS in supply operations on the excessive seas, along with Wingcopter now we have the perfect stipulations to drive this know-how an enormous step ahead.”

“We’re more than happy to have gained Zeitfracht as a companion with extraordinary expertise within the logistics and aviation sector. With the deliberate provide flights to ships and offshore wind farms, we’ll faucet into a brand new, fast-growing subject of software for which the Wingcopter 198 is ideally suited because of its excessive effectivity, even in excessive climate circumstances. As well as, the take a look at website and the shut cooperation provide the chance to collectively develop additional promising enterprise areas,” provides Tom Plümmer, co-founder and CEO of Wingcopter.