Drone Delivery Canada accelerates drone testing amid crisis

Drone Delivery Canada will begin commercial testing of its heavy-lift, long-range cargo delivery drone, the Condor, as customers express strong interest during the pandemic situation.

The Condor has a lifting capability of 180kgs of payload, a range of 200kms and an operating speed of 120kph. The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 20 cubic feet of cargo.

The phase of testing for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights is taking place at the Foremost UAS Test Range in Alberta, Canada and will test the long-range and heavy-lift capabilities of the Condor.

The company is in discussions with various potential customers, who all have expressed a strong interest in the Condor. This has particularly been the case under the current pandemic situation with interest in connecting remote communities to aid in fighting COVID-19.

Michael Zahra, President and CEO, commented: “Market response to the Condor has been overwhelmingly positive. With the COVID-19 situation, interested customers have asked us to fast-track the commercialization process which we are now doing.

“The capabilities of the Condor simply address many social (medical, pharmaceutical, remote communities, Indigenous communities, humanitarian aid, etc) and economic (mining, oil & gas, courier, inspection, etc) use-cases being requested by DDC’s customers.”

Zahara added: “Drone delivery is also an ideal solution for limiting person-to-person contact in the current pandemic situation. These requests are happening globally. Additionally, DDC’s patented FLYTE system is airframe agnostic, meaning it can easily be integrated onto future DDC or third-party drones and rotary or fixed-wing manned aircraft to allow the company to offer a strong technology roadmap for even heavier-lift and longer-range drones in the future.”

The Condor measures 22 feet long, 5 feet wide and 7 feet tall. It has a rotor diameter of approximately 20 feet and is capable of vertical take-off and landing. It is equipped with DDC’s proprietary FLYTE management system which is the same platform used in all of DDC’s cargo delivery drones.