Air taxi startup Volocopter teams up with Schenker to deploy heavy-lift drones
| < 1 minute read
German aviation startup Volocopter has teamed up with logistics group DB Schenker to deploy its heavy-lift drones, in a project that will gather vital practical flying experience before its air taxis enter service.
Volocopter is one of a fleet of startups developing battery-powered aircraft. With full certification for its air taxi still, a few years away, it wants to put its VoloDrone to work sooner. The remote-controlled drone can lift a load of up to 200 kilograms (440 lb) and has a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles), making it ideal for jobs such as delivering medicines to a hospital or dropping off components at a factory.
Big car manufacturing companies like Toyota, BMW, Tesla, and aerospace companies like Boeing and Airbus are also developing the air taxi. According to a Morgan Stanley Research study, the autonomous urban aircraft market may be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Uber said it had shortlisted five countries, besides the US, to launch its air taxis: Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, and France.
The concept of air taxi was first introduced way back in 2001 by NASA.
Suprotik Sinha is the Content Writer with Synkrama Technologies. He writes about technologies and startups in the global enterprise space. An animal lover, Suprotik, is a postgraduate from Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication (SIMC) Pune. He carries 6+ years of experience in Content Writing, and he also worked in mainstream broadcast media, where he worked as a Journalist with Ibn7 ( now known as News18 India) and Zee Media in Mumbai.
About the author
Suprotik Sinha is the Content Writer with Synkrama Technologies. He writes about technologies and startups in the global enterprise space. An animal lover, Suprotik, is a postgraduate from Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication (SIMC) Pune. He carries 6+ years of experience in Content Writing, and he also worked in mainstream broadcast media, where he worked as a Journalist with Ibn7 ( now known as News18 India) and Zee Media in Mumbai.
