Unmanned cargo aircraft developer, Elroy Air is all set to test its autonomous electric based drone for take-off and landing. The testing will begin in 2023 and will be a part of the partnership with the logistics giant FedEx. As per the agreement, the FedEx Express will test Elroy Air’s Chaparral, which is an autonomous air cargo system in the company’s middle-mile logistics operations and moving shipments between the locations.
Talking about the Chaparral, it has the capacity to cover long-range flights and does not need any airports or charging stations. That is not all as it can also autonomously pick up nearly 300 to 500 pounds of cargo and can drop it at the destinations which are up to 300 miles away. Joe Stephans, the senior vice president of Global Planning at FedEx Express said that FedEx was built on the foundation of innovation and that they always look forward towards new technologies that help to improve the logistics industry with improved safety, customer service and efficiency.
Stephans added that they are looking forward towards constant testing and learning with the help of their collaboration with Elroy Air. The Elroy Air was showed off in January and this was the time when the company had said that it managed to secure more than 500 aircrafts from defense commercial and the humanitarian customers and had amounted to more than $1 billion in aircraft demand. The drone delivery program was launched by FedEx with the Alphabet’s Wing in 2019. In the same year Wing launched its own partnership with Walgreens in Virginia.
Some of the other giants like Walmart, UPS and Kroger have also tested drone delivery. Executives from FedEx have said that the third quarter earnings in March would see a growth of e-commerce in the United States. The partnership of FedEx with Elroy Air started off in January 2020. With the competition increasing in every field, new technologies would keep companies at the top.
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