Drone Delivery Canada tests heavy-lift drone

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has started commercial testing for its heavy-lift, long-range cargo delivery drone, The Condor, with a lifting capability of 180 kgs of payload, a travel range of 200 kms and an operating speed of 120 kph.

The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 20 cubic feet of cargo.

The Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight testing will take place at the Foremost UAS Test Range in Alberta in the summer of 2020 under a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), anticipated in Q2 2020. The company is in discussions with various potential customers, who all have expressed strong interest in the Condor once finalizing commercial testing in Foremost.

CEO Michael Zahra commented: “Market response to the Condor has been overwhelmingly strong. The capabilities of the Condor simply address many social (medical, pharmaceutical, remote communities, humanitarian aid, etc) and economic (mining, oil & gas, courier, etc) use-cases being requested by DDC’s customers.

“These requests are happening globally. Based on direct market feedback, this will be a game-changer for the Company, our customers and the industry overall. Additionally, DDC’s patented FLYTE system is airframe agnostic, meaning it can easily be integrated onto future DDC or 3rd 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 670 cm long, 152 cm wide and 213 cm tall. It has a rotor diameter of approximately 609 cm and is capable of vertical takeoff 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.

Drone Delivery Canada said it is actively deploying commercial agreements previously announced and anticipates seeing operations start in Q1 with revenue generating agreements.