423 Ameriflight Cargo Drones

Ameriflight plans to purchase cargo drones from Natilus and Saberwing, a plan for autonomous wind turbine inspections and repair, the American Security Drone Act, an arrest made for flying a drone at Dublin airport, a new hydrogen-powered octocopter drone, and Green and Blue UAS.

UAV News

Ameriflight adds 35 heavy-duty cargo drones to wish list

Ameriflight is a regional cargo airline (Part 135) that operates 156 turboprop twins for customers such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL. They recently signed a tentative agreement with Natilus for pilotless cargo planes. Now Ameriflight has signed a Letter of Intent to purchase 35 VTOL cargo drones from Sabrewing Aircraft Co.

Ameriflight has 15 bases across the Western Hemisphere with 200 service destinations throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean and South America. They typically experience over 1,500 weekly departures.

The Natilus agreement to purchase is for the Kona aircraft, a 3.8-ton payload, short-haul feeder uncrewed aerial vehicle. Nautilus says the Kona planes will be operated by remote control and have the ability to be fully autonomous at some point in the future. 

Project Using Automated Drones for Offshore Wind O&M Aims for Reducing Downtime and CO2 Emissions

The Flexible Offshore Drone for Wind (FOD4Wind) project envisions a system that can conduct autonomous wind turbine inspections and repair as well as package deliveries from service operation vessels to offshore turbines.

mFOD4Wind illustration, courtesy University of Southern Denmark.

Drones would take off from service operation vessels and carry gear and tools to the nacelles of Siemens offshore wind turbines. The Upteko partner says “If we can replace sailing with drone flights from larger ships, then many of the trips around the wind farm will be saved. There is great potential in that – both in terms of time and CO2 emissions.”

The project, which runs until the end of 2024, is first working with payloads of 12 kilograms, with a long-term goal for the drones to be able to carry a cargo of up to 100 kilograms.

The FOD4Wind project is being undertaken by Siemens Gamesa (produces wind turbines), ESVAGT (operates the service operation vessels), Upteko (developer of the automated UAS), and the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) with Energy Cluster Denmark managing FOD4Wind.

Warner, Scott Introduce Legislation to Ban Purchase of Drones