Drone delivery firm A2Z Drone Delivery has announced the rollout of a new flagship long-range last-mile delivery drone, the RDSX Pelican, which has a reported payload of up to five kilograms with a range of up to 40km (24.8 miles).
Without a load, the drone can reportedly travel up to 50km and, when configured for heavy lifting, it can haul up to 8kg.
A2Z explained that the Pelican combines a hybrid VTOL airframe with no control surfaces to provide reliability and aerial stability of a multirotor platform, with the extended range of a craft with fixed wings.
In addition to this, With no ailerons, elevator or rudder, the Pelican’s durable-yet-simple design eliminates common points of failure and exponentially extends operational time between maintenance overhauls.
Key design motivations behind the RDSX Pelican were the minimisation potential points of failure and reducing the overall cost-per-kilometre of logistics operations, all while providing maximum payload flexibility.
Often, delivery drones can offer good transportation at a reduced cost and more sustainably than some traditional shipping options,
The drone solutions specialist added that, while many last-mile terrestrial or seaborn deliveries can already be completed with unmanned aerial vehicles, the unit costs of such deliveries needs to fall for the industry to truly scale these services.
The drone’s reported operating cost is 13 cents or 10 pence/kg/km operating cost when fully loaded and is capable of carrying parcels up to 400 x 300 x 300mm.
Prices start at US$29,000 (£23,000) and the Pelican is available in multiple configurations.
Additional design specifications mean the Pelican can be customised to suit specific mission criteria such as aerial mapping, drone inspection, search and rescue operations, water sample collection, offshore deliveries, mining, etc.
A2Z is now accepting pre-orders for the RDSX Pelican, with initial deliveries expected for June 2023.
