Black Swan

Rejecting deliveries to the doorstep, some drone makers are betting on bigger pilot-free aircraft.

You may not be ordering a flying drone delivery to your home address anytime soon. Mr Kleine-Lasthues shares the opinion that earlier drone delivery models were a dead end. The hybrid design means the drone can refuel at existing facilities rather than relying on docking stations for electricity. Bristow has signalled its intent to buy up to 100 cargo drones from a Californian company, Elroy Air. They represent a big change, they offer speed and flexibility." Dronamics plans to operate Black Swans like an airline, "Europe's first drone cargo airline." Elroy Air's Kofi Asante researched autonomous trucks at Uber's freight arm. "It can carry a hundred times the payload of small UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), it's comparable to a small plane in terms of load but operates at a fraction of the cost of a helicopter." That's why we're working with Dronamics, it's not an Amazon delivery type idea." We took a different approach." German logistics giant Hellmann is poised to begin using these drones. "We couldn't buy into the concept of small drones.