Urban air mobility firm Volocopter and logistics provider DB Schenker presented a cargo drone at this month’s National Aviation Conference in Berlin.

Volocopter’s heavy-lift drone was presented to German federal politicians during the conference at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. The aircraft is autonomously and electrically operated and can transport up to 200kg of cargo with a range of up to 40km.

“Our customers demand clean and fast innovations for their supply chains,” said Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB Schenker. “When the infrastructure for conventional means of transport is overburdened or non-existent, cargo drones offer an opportunity to rethink logistics routes. The possible applications in logistics are limitless.”

He said through the partnership with Volocopter, this vision was gradually becoming reality.

“Drone transport is becoming increasingly tangible,” he said. “The National Aviation Conference in Berlin offers us a very good opportunity to give German politicians a live impression of this.”

Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, added: “Our VoloDrone will be put to use, where classical ground transportation meets its limits in logistics, construction or agriculture. We have ten years of flight experience and our advanced status in the certifications process with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) bears tremendous synergies for all our aircraft. DB Schenker is a leading logistics partner, with whom we are readying our VoloDrone specifically for the commercial use in different logistics applications.”

The VoloDrone exhibited onsite at the conference is a test aircraft from Volocopter with a sample transport container from DB Schenker. In commercial operation, it will be able to cover distances of up to 40km. The drone is 9.15m in diameter and 2.15m tall. It weighs 600kg with an additional payload of up to 200kg.

The drone operations will be fully electric with autonomous beyond visual line of sight capabilities. It can take off and land vertically. The first flight took place in 2019. Since then, regular flight tests have been conducted at various airfields in southern Germany.

Future logistical applications for the heavy-lift drone include places that are difficult or slower to reach by other means, such as islands, land-to-ship deliveries, transport to mountainous regions, or places isolated from road networks following natural disasters. Intra-city deliveries are also plausible use cases.

DB Schenker has been an investor in Volocopter since 2020. Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB Schenker, is a member of the advisory board. The goal is to further the development and market launch of the VoloDrone for the logistics industry.

DB Schenker is testing numerous technologies worldwide to make its services for customers more flexible and climate-friendly and to reduce noise emissions and pollution.

With around 74,200 employees at more than 2100 locations in over 130 countries, DB Schenker operates land, air and ocean transportation services.

Volocopter is building a sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to cities worldwide.

In 2011, Volocopter performed the first-ever crewed flight of a purely electric multicopter and has since showcased numerous public flights with its full-scale aircraft. The most notable have been the public test flights at Singapore’s Marina Bay in October 2019 and an autonomous flight in Dubai in 2017.

Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter has around 400 employees in offices in Bruchsal, Munich and Singapore. The company has raised €322m in equity. Investors include Daimler, Geely, DB Schenker, BlackRock and Intel.