Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) will begin commercial testing of the Condor, its heavy-lift, long-range cargo delivery drone.
The Condor has a lifting capability of 180kgs (400lbs) of payload, a travel range of 200kms and an operating speed of 120kph. The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 20 cu ft of cargo.
This phase of testing for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight 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.
Said a DDC spokesperson: “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 the Condor interest to connect remote communities to aid in fighting COVID-19.
Michael Zahra, DDC President and CEO, said: “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.”
Zahra continued: “Drone delivery is also an ideal solution for limiting person-to-person contact in the current pandemic situation. These requests are happening globally.”
DDC’s patented FLYTE system is “airframe agnostic”, meaning it can be integrated onto future DDC or third-party drones and rotary or fixed-wing manned aircraft.
This will allow DDC to offer “a strong technology roadmap for even heavier-lift and longer-range drones in the future,” said Zahra.
The Condor measures 22 ft long, 5 ft wide and 7 ft tall. It has a rotor diameter of approximately 20 ft and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
