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Drone Delivery Canada prepares for commercial testing of Condor

Drone Delivery Canada announced it is set to begin the commercialization of its Condor drone, which has a lifting capability of 180 kgs (400 lbs) of payload, a travel range of 200 kilometres and an operating speed of 120 km/h. The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 20 cubic feet of cargo.

This phase of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight testing will take place at the Foremost UAS Test Range in Alberta in the summer of 2020 under a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), anticipated in the second quarter of 2020. The company states it is in discussions with potential customers around use of the Condor once finalizing commercial testing in Foremost.

The Foremost Test Range is a permanent Restricted Airspace area for flying Unmanned Aircraft Systems, located in Southeast Alberta. It provides 700 square nautical miles (2,400 square kilometres) of airspace designated for drone operations up to 18,000 feet above sea level. Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) explains this makes the airspace attractive for companies that wish to conduct beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) test flights.

“Market response to the Condor has been overwhelmingly strong. The capabilities of the Condor simply address many social – medical, pharmaceutical, remote communities, humanitarian aid, etcetera – and economic – mining, oil and gas, courier, etcetera – use-cases being requested by DDC’s customers. These requests are happening globally,” said Michael Zahra, president and CEO, DDC. “Based on direct market feedback, this will be a game-changer for the company, our customers and the industry overall.

Zahra continues to explains DDC’s patented FLYTE system is airframe agnostic, meaning it can be integrated onto future DDC or third-party drones, as well as rotary- or fixed-wing manned aircraft, to provide the company with a technology roadmap for developing heavier-lift and longer-range drones.

The Condor measures 22-feet long, five-feet wide and seven-feet tall. It has a rotor diameter of approximately 20 feet and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing. The FLYTE management system is the same platform used in all of DDC’s cargo delivery drones.