Volocopter’s electric heavy-lift drone – VoloDrone – completed its very first public flight yesterday at the ITS World Congress 2021 in Hamburg, Germany.
Together with the international logistics leader DB Schenker, Volocopter – a pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM) – demonstrated VoloDrone’s seamless integration into the logistics supply chain with an end-to-end cargo transport demonstration.
The three-minute test flight took off at 3:02 p.m. and reached a maximum altitude of 22 meters.
The giant drone uses 18 rotors, a battery, and electric motors to hoist itself into the air.
It is fitted with a rail attachment system in between its landing gear, to carry payloads of up to 200 kg over a 40-km range.
Commenting on the launch, Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, said: “This first public VoloDrone flight is a strong sign for Volocopter´s leading position in the UAM industry.
“We are the only UAM company offering solutions for passengers and goods that are flying fully scaled and publicly around the world.
“Our VoloDrone will make existing logistics processes more robust, efficient, and sustainable.”
With this first flight, Volocopter and DB Schenker demonstrated the potential of drones to create entirely new supply chains and transport routes.
Erik Wirsing, DB Schenker vice president of global innovation, said: “With the VoloDrone flight today, we were able to publicly demonstrate our successful collaboration and the impressive progress on DB Schenker’s innovation and sustainability roadmap for cleaner logistics.
“Volocopter has proven again that they are the ideal partner for DB Schenker’s ambition to rethink global supply chains and bring transport logistics to the next dimension for our customers while saving emissions.”
Image: Volocopter
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