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Successful first public flight of Volocopter’s VoloDrone

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Successful first public flight of Volocopter’s VoloDrone. Image: DB Schenker
Successful first public flight of Volocopter’s VoloDrone. Image: DB Schenker
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Volocopter’s electric heavy-lift drone VoloDrone conducted its first public flight at ITS World Congress 2021. Together with the international logistics leader DB Schenker, Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility, demonstrated VoloDrone’s seamless integration into the logistics supply chain with an end-to-end cargo transport demonstration. The partners showed their significant progress together since DB Schenker became a strategic investor of Volocopter in early 2020.

The 3-minute test flight took off at 3:02 p.m. at homePORT Hamburg and reached a maximum altitude of 22 meters. For this delivery simulation, the electric heavy-lift utility drone was equipped with a load-box in between its landing gear. First, the demonstration teams secured a Euro-pallet sized load to the box under the VoloDrone, followed by a smooth take-off. After this, the aircraft brought the payload to a DB Schenker Cargo Bike and landed safely. Once the payload was transferred successfully, the Cargo Bike delivered its cargo to the final destination under the area’s park deck, marking the completion of the entirely electric, multimodal last-mile delivery.

“This first public VoloDrone flight is a strong sign for Volocopter´s leading position in the UAM industry. We are the only UAM company offering solutions for passengers and goods that are flying fully scaled and publicly around the world,” says Florian Reuter, Volocopter CEO. “Our VoloDrone will make existing logistics processes more robust, efficient, and sustainable. DB Schenker is an invaluable partner in our endeavor to untap the massive potential of our VoloDrone’s logistics use cases.”

Erik Wirsing, Vice President Global Innovation at DB Schenker, comments, “With the VoloDrone flight today, we were able to publicly demonstrate our successful collaboration and the impressive progress on DB Schenker’s innovation and sustainability roadmap for cleaner logistics. Volocopter has proven again that they are the ideal partner for DB Schenker’s ambition to rethink global supply chains and bring transport logistics to the next dimension for our customers while saving emissions.”

The demonstration in Hamburg builds upon the foundations of the static proof of concept (PoC) the partners conducted in July this year in Stuttgart. It laid out a blueprint of how to implement VoloDrone operations in logistics facilities globally. With the first public flight of the VoloDrone, in Hamburg, Volocopter and DB Schenker demonstrated how drone operations can extend the existing logistics infrastructure for land or sea transport to create entirely new supply chains and transport routes.

The VoloDrone is an uncrewed, fully electric utility drone designed to carry any of the six International Organization for Standardization (ISO) pallet sizes, weighing up to 200 kilograms, over a 40-kilometer range. This electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is aimed to serve challenging missions across diverse industries. As one member of Volocopter’s robust UAM aircraft portfolio for transporting passengers (VoloCity and VoloConnect) and goods in cities, the VoloDrone is positioned to be deployed where conventional transport options reach their limits.

UAM utilizes innovative aircraft to provide mobility solutions to metropolitan areas. In addition to developing the aircraft, Volocopter is organizing the physical (VoloPorts) and digital (VoloIQ) infrastructure to support these services, which are set to launch in the next 2-3 years. VoloIQ serves as the digital backbone for operations. This platform will support ecosystem aspects like Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO), Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO), Flight Analytics, Vehicle Connectivity, Autonomous Operations, and more.

The VoloDrone’s first flight took place in 2019. Since then, regular flight tests have been conducted at various airfields in Germany. The drone itself is 9.15 meters in diameter, 2.15 meters tall, and has a 600-kilogram maximum take-off weight (MTOW). Future VoloDrone operations will be fully electric with autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) capabilities.

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Freight Forwarding

Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo

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Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo. Image: Kuehne+Nagel
Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo. Image: Kuehne+Nagel
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Kuehne+Nagel signed an agreement to acquire Morgan Cargo, a leading South African, UK and Kenyan freight forwarder specialised in the transport and handling of perishable goods. During 2022 the company handled more than 40,000 tonnes of air freight and more than 20,000 TEU of sea freight globally, managed by approximately 450 logistics experts.

The acquisition of Morgan Cargo ideally complements Kuehne+Nagel’s perishables logistics service offering, while improving connectivity for customers to and from South Africa, the UK and Kenya, which includes state-of-the-art cold chain facilities.

Yngve Ruud, Member of the Management Board of Kuehne+Nagel, responsible for Air Logistics, commented: “With Morgan Cargo, we acquire a reliable logistics service provider for the benefit of our customers. Expansion in high-growth markets such as Africa clearly ties into our Roadmap 2026 and reinforces our commitment to the Middle East and Africa Region. We have been active in Africa for many years, but this acquisition is an ideal addition to our regional presence.”

Schalk Bruwer, CEO of Morgan Cargo, added: “We wanted to expand our successful family-owned business and took the opportunity to become part of one of the world leaders in logistics. This new development will provide greater opportunities for our customers in terms of global reach and allow our team to advance their careers beyond the realm that was previously possible. Morgan Cargo is extremely excited to become part of Kuehne+Nagel.”

Closing of the transaction is expected during the third quarter of 2023 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance by the competent merger control authorities.

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Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization

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Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization. Image: Yusen Logistics
Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization. Image: Yusen Logistics
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Following on from last week’s press release Toyota to decarbonise its logistics activities in Europe, Yusen Logistics Europe partners with Toyota Motor Europe in this proactive approach to alternative powertrain development.

Together with VDL Special Vehicles, Yusen Logistics is honored to be part of the team to help accelerate the decarbonization of Toyota’s logistics network with the use of hydrogen fuel cell trucks. Using Toyota’s fuel cell modules VDL will convert an existing vehicle into a zero-emission truck for Yusen Logistics to operate within Toyota Motor Europe’s logistics network.

The innovative technology project is a significant step towards reducing both companies’ overall carbon footprint and aligns with Yusen Logistics’ wider commitment to working together with our partners and communities towards a more sustainable future.

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cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group

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cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group. Image: Cargo Partner
cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group. Image: Cargo Partner
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As cargo-partner is celebrating its 40th anniversary, company owner and founder Stefan Krauter has decided to sell the Austrian global logistics player to Japanese stock-listed Nippon Express Holdings, which is also the parent company of Nippon Express, APC, Franco Vago and others. Having started operations in 1983 with only five employees at Vienna Airport and having developed the company almost completely organically to now 4,000 employees in 40 countries around the globe, Stefan Krauter had already passed on the baton to his management and now has also passed over ownership to his “ideal successor” NX.

After exceeding the billion euro mark in global turnover for the first time in 2020, cargo-partner’s turnover increased by 72%, reaching over 1.8 billion euro in 2021, and further increased to 2.06 billion euro in 2022.

“Leadership by agile founders bears some considerable advantages, but from a certain stage on, highly professional and long-term stable ownership is the bigger asset. It is the founders’ challenge and responsibility to decide about both management and ownership succession at the right time. Not too early to be able to build a stable internal management succession but, for sure, also not too late,” Krauter says. “That is why, together with the Corporate Executive Board, we started evaluating different options for the future of cargo-partner.”

Stefan Krauter continues to explain: “It would also have been a good option for the management and employees to continue going completely alone, but since the ideal new strategic owner was found in NX Group, we were ultimately convinced that this was the right way to go forward. Following the integration policy we have seen from NX Group so far, cargo-partner will remain cargo-partner in regard to both organization and branding – and it will become the strongest cargo-partner ever!”

The deal was signed on May 12, 2023 and will come into effect subject to the usual regulatory (anti-trust and FDI) approvals in an estimated four to seven months along with the subsequent closing.

“Both organizations will benefit from considerable synergies in global office coverage, an expanded service portfolio, strengthened regional, product and IT know-how, increased scale and others. NX Group will benefit from our strong and extensive network in Central and Eastern Europe that complements NX’s existing network in an ideal way, and cargo-partner will jump several leagues in the Intra-Asian and Trans-Pacific trade lanes,” Stefan Krauter states. He adds: “cargo-partner will also continue to work with its current global agents’ network, strive to expand this section of its business and support it in future with its upgraded platform which is presently under development.”

“I will personally continue to support the transition in my new role on the Corporate Supervisory Board and in my advisory function to the Corporate Executive Board. I will be focusing on smart partial integration with the new owners as well as on other matters regarding strategy, M&A and ESG. What an interesting and rewarding challenge at the end of my career!” Krauter says.

The sellers have been advised by J.P. Morgan (financial), ValueAdd (financial), BCG (commercial), Schönherr (legal), and Deloitte (accounting and tax) on the transaction.

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