Volocopter’s electric heavy lift drone VoloDrone made its first public flight at the ITS World Congress in 2021. Together with the international logistics leader DB Schenker, Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), demonstrated the seamless integration of VoloDrone into the logistics supply chain with an end-to-end freight transport demonstration. Since DB Schenker became a strategic investor in Volocopter at the beginning of 2020, the partners have shown significant progress together.
The 3-minute test flight took off at 3:02 p.m. on October 12th at homePORT Hamburg and reached a maximum height of 22 meters. For this delivery simulation, the electric heavy-lift utility drone was equipped with a charging box between its landing gear. First, the demonstration teams secured a load the size of a Euro pallet to the crate under the VoloDrone, followed by a smooth start. The aircraft then took the payload to a DB Schenker Cargo Bike and landed safely. After the payload was successfully transferred, the cargo bike delivered its cargo to the final destination under the site’s parking deck, marking the completion of the all-electric, multimodal last-mile delivery.
« This is the first public VoloDrone flight a strong indication of Volocopter’s leading position in the UAM industry. We are the only UAM company that offers solutions for passengers and goods that fly completely and publicly around the world, ”says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. “Our VoloDrone will make existing logistics processes more robust, efficient and sustainable. DB Schenker is an invaluable partner in our endeavors to open up the enormous potential of the logistical applications of our VoloDrone. «
Erik Wirsing, Vice President Global Innovation at DB Schenker, comments: » With the VoloDrone flight we were able to have our successful flight today To publicly demonstrate cooperation and the impressive progress made on DB Schenker’s innovation and sustainability roadmap for cleaner logistics. Volocopter has once again proven that they are the ideal partner for DB Schenker’s ambition to rethink global supply chains and take transport logistics to the next dimension for our customers while reducing emissions. ”
The demonstration in Hamburg is taking place on the basis of the static proof of concept (PoC) that the partners carried out in Stuttgart in July of this year. It laid out a blueprint for implementing VoloDrone operations in logistics facilities around the world.
The VoloDrone is an unmanned, all-electric utility drone designed to handle any of the six pallet sizes of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with a To transport weights of up to 200 kilograms over a range of 40 kilometers. As a member of Volocopter’s robust UAM aircraft portfolio for the transport of passengers (VoloCity and VoloConnect) and goods in cities, the VoloDrone is positioned where conventional transport options reach their limits. In addition to developing the aircraft, Volocopter is organizing the physical (VoloPorts) and digital (VoloIQ) infrastructure to support these services, which will be introduced in the next 2-3 years. VoloIQ serves as the digital backbone for operations.
The first flight of the VoloDrone took place in 2019. Since then, flight tests have been carried out regularly at various airfields in Germany. The drone itself has a diameter of 9.15 meters, a height of 2.15 meters and a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 600 kilograms. Future VoloDrone operations will be fully electric with autonomous beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) capabilities.
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