Exclusive - The Black Swan is about to take off

Currently, test flights with the drone are still taking place. However, come summer, the UAV is scheduled to commence commercial operation. For safety reasons, the initial flights will mainly only be across water, between Malta and Italy. By then, operator Dronamics, which already possesses an AOC, expects to also have the necessary approvals from the EU aviation authority, EASA. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, too, plays a major role in this project because the company will utilize the drone's capacity exclusively for its own purposes during the initial phase in Europe. 

If everything goes according to plan, as of next summer a new aerial vehicle will cross the skies at altitudes of between around 5,000 and 7,000 meters: the Black Swan, developed by Bulgarian brothers, Svilen and Konstantin Rangelov. It is an unmanned fixed-wing cargo drone that, according to the manufacturer, can carry a payload of up to 350 kg, and cover distances of around 2,500 km, nonstop. As a CarbonNeutral® certified company, Dronamics aims to be completely CO2 neutral in the medium term. The Black Swan drone is powered by clean and energy-efficient technologies that already produce 80% fewer emissions than other means of transportation. Trained and certified specialists must be on site at the takeoff and landing points, partly for safety but also for technical reasons, while the flights are monitored remotely by traffic controllers at a control center. Up to 12 flights can be overseen and managed by a single flight controller at any one time, says Jan Kleine Lasthues (JKL). He is Chief Operating Officer Air Freight at Hellmann, and is currently preparing the first commercial deployment of the Black Swan in coordination with the Dronamics team.
CFG spoke with him about the status of the project and Hellmann’s involvement:

Air beats road

CFG: Hellmann operates its own overnight express network in Europe, which is served by Sprinter vehicles. Why does your company intend to utilize the Black Swan in addition?
JKL: For several reasons. In terms of time, the Black Swan beats road transport by far. It can operate at smaller airports with short runways, or those with turf cover. Even larger parking lots suffice for the drone to be able to land or take off, provided the areas are secured. These are parameters that make Black Swan operations very versatile, easy to reach by ground delivery or pickup trucks, and this significantly increases transport speed compared to any road solution. The only limitation is that larger commercial airports are off-limits for them for collision reasons. So, we won’t see any Black Swan at CDG, FRA, AMS, LHR, or BCN.

CFG: What does a cost comparison between drone and sprinter look like based on a distance of 800 km, for example?
JKL: We have individual pricing models that we are currently evaluating. We ask for your understanding that we will not provide any financial specifics at the current time, when commercial flights have not even started. Only this: The flight of a shipment by the Black Swan - based on the transported kilogram - is more expensive than a road transport by Sprinter, but not substantially. In the overall calculation, customers will have to take into account the time advantage.