The development of a low cost, certifiable, heavy lift cargo UAV for humanitarian operations

The development of a low cost, certifiable, heavy lift cargo UAV for humanitarian operations.

Humanitarian operations typically rely on helicopters to deliver aid when time is of the essence and road access is limited. Flooding, landslides, earthquakes, fire and war can all make road access impossible or very difficult to traverse with urgently needed supplies. To bridge this access gap helicopters are used to move supplies from staging areas sometimes airports, or the last easily accessible road point to where aid is needed.

The need to use helicopters adds significantly to supply costs and puts human lives at risk. Developing an uncrewed drone solution to perform this aerial delivery to hard to reach locations will reduce the risk to human crews. However, unless the cost of operating such UAVs/drones is significantly lower than that of a helicopter per payload-distance economics will prevent their widespread adoption.

Developing and demonstrating the capabilities of a low cost cargo UAV/drone to fulfil this need at a lower cost than that of a helicopter will be a game changer for distribution of aid, vaccines and medical supplies, search and rescue and support for remote areas.

This project is a consortium of Flowcopter, Modini, Edinburgh University and AYR Logistics

With Flowcopter in the role of drone manufacturer

Modini providing support for certification and flight trials

Edinburgh University modelling and optimising airframe design

AYR Logistics as a registered vendor to Aid Agencies and Governments for the provision of humanitarian aviation operations, including UN, UNICEF & World Food Programme providing voice of the customer, specifications and CONOPS (concept of operations)