Wingcopter’s authorized partner in Japan, ITOCHU Corporation, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the practical use of Wingcopter’s long-range drones in aerial surveying together with PASCO Corporation and YellowScan Japan.
The companies initially plan to use the Wingcopter 198 in disaster management where drone-based surveying is playing an increasingly important role,
to create hazard maps and monitor ground deformation as part of effective pre-disaster prevention,
to gather information and assess damage in the event of a disaster, and
to measure terrain changes and develop recovery plans during post-disaster restoration.
According to Wingcopter, carrying out these tasks is easier and less risky with fixed-wing drones such as the Wingcopter 198 than with traditional human or aircraft-based methods.
About 70 percent of Japan’s land consists of mountainous and hilly terrain, with steep slopes and short, fast-flowing rivers. Conventional multicopter droneswould not be suitable for such tasks as they are limited in range and coverage compared to the Wingcopter 198.
Image: Wingcopter
Under the MOU, YellowScan Japan’s advanced lidaer scanner Voyager will be used on the Wingcopter 198. By integrating this technology with PASCO’s extensive expertise in operational quality and safety in aerial surveying, it is possible to carry out long-distance and large-area surveys that were previously difficult to achieve without manned aircraft.
In a single 45-minute flight, the Wingcopter 198 can scan 1,000+ hectares, simultaneously capturing lidar and RGB data, allowing the system to generate an exceptionally high point density and precision. This makes it suitable even for demanding applications.
The collaboration also promotes automation and labor savings in surveying tasks, contributing to sustainable development in the surveying industry and reducing disaster risks.
German drone-delivery company Wingcopter has signed a commercial agreement with Spright worth US$16 million to enable UAV medical deliveries.
Spright is a subsidiary of American air medical service provider Air Methods. Under the agreement, Spright is acquiring a fleet of Wingcopter’s flagship delivery drone, the Wingcopter 198, to meet the increasing demand for medical drone deliveries throughout the United States.
The contract makes Wingcopter the exclusive provider of fixed-wing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) delivery-drone technology to Spright. Spright, in turn, becomes exclusive provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul for the Wingcopter 198 to third parties in the United States.
Drone Division Launched
Spright was launched in July 2020 as the new drone division of Air Methods to improve healthcare access and minimize supply challenges for customers across the United States. To this end, Spright is creating a drone-based, U.S. healthcare-specific delivery network leveraging an existing infrastructure of more than 300 bases, serving hundreds of hospitals across 48 states in predominantly rural areas.
The agreement further strengthens the strategic partnership between the two companies, announced in August 2021. Spright is closely supporting Wingcopter in its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) UAS type-certification process, leveraging Spright’s aviation experience operating FAA 121 and 135 air carriers, its existing Part 135 certificate (on-demand air service) and safety management system program.
Spright is collaborating with Hutchinson Regional Health System in Hutchinson, Kansas, for initial tests, and plans to expand the service beyond Kansas with additional strategic medical projects later this year.
The Wingcopter fleet will increase healthcare access across rural and underserved communities by enabling instant and on-demand delivery of vital medical supplies, medications, vaccines, blood and lab samples between medical facilities. It will also improve quality of care for patients with faster turn-around time of lab samples and more targeted treatments for patients.
Finally, the electrically powered Wingcopter cargo drones will reduce the medical industry’s carbon footprint, contributing to greener and more sustainable supply chains with faster and more predictable delivery times.
Wingcopter and Spright will showcase the Wingcopter 198 delivery drone and provide an opportunity to meet executives of both companies at the logistics tech conference Manifest in Las Vegas Jan. 25-27.
This month, the four-pound Integrity dual-rotor UAV on Mars continues to fly and may be moving into a scouting role. Plus, there are continuing efforts to move UAV electronics towards a “certifiable” level to support integration in regular airspace. Finally, a newly launched parcel delivery drone has increased carrying capacity.
The excitement around flying an unmanned helicopter on Mars is gradually dissipating as Ingenuity racks up more flights and the NASA team prepares for an elongated flight schedule following the initial 30-day flying experiment. Data from the Martian UAV passes back and forth through the Perseverance rover, which now has things of its own to do and places to go. An initial 30-foot crawl a couple of days ago signaled the beginning of the rover’s ground activities, which are the main focus of the mission.
However, the little UAV has achieved plenty and appears to have lots of life left to fly. We’re now up to five flights, with the latest taking Ingenuity more than 420 feet, flying at a height of 15 feet to a new landing spot, ahead of where the rover intends to travel.
Before landing, NASA took the UAV up to 33 feet, where future flights should be able to better view features for the rover to investigate. Integrity’s role may now transition to scouting an advance path for rover exploration — one of the principle objectives for the little UAV.
A tiny speck in the distance, NASA’s Ingenuity UAV flies on Mars looking for a new landing spot during its fourth flight. (Photo: NASA)
NASA is planning a few additional trips for Integrity in the next week or so — adequate power is being captured by the top-mounted solar cell to fly and keep the vehicle warm through the cold Mars nights, and the miniaturized avionics systems are holding up well. Hopefully, we will still hear of new accomplishments in weeks to come. Incidentally, Perseverance can now capture the sound of the UAV’s spinning blades and the background wind on the surface of Mars.
FAA certification for drones
News here on Earth is about much more capable unmanned vehicles, new innovations and new applications, and efforts seem to be gaining ground toward certifying UAS and their systems to recognized Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards, so integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) might roll out sooner than expected.
When a manufacturer produces an electronic component and qualifies it to the necessary FAA standards, it does not automatically make it a certified product. It only becomes certified on a particular model of aircraft or UAV when the vehicle is certified for operational use by the FAA. There are similar standards and certification requirements in Europe and around the rest of the world.
Enter George
Photo: uAvionix
uAvionics in Leesburg, Virginia, recently launched a new certifiable UAS autopilot — with the cute name of “George.” As older aviation enthusiasts might recall, this moniker was what the World War II pilots of long-range piston engine bombers sometimes called their rudimentary autopilots, which held wings level on long-endurance flights.
With triplex gyros and accelerometers, dual processors and compasses, and a barometer, the unit is lightweight and low power, but has been developed to all the principal aviation requirements, including software and environmental standards.
George joins uAvionics’ line of other aviation qualified/certifiable hardware for UAVs. This includes the ping200X ADS-B for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) detect and avoid, and the trueFYX TSO-C145e certified GPS receiver.
Seeking Certification
Sagetech in White Salmon, Washington, is another supplier working hard toward certifiable equipment for unmanned aircraft. Sagetech’s detect-and-avoid (DAA) solution makes use of its ADS-B transponder, which can be paired with other airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) components.
Sagetech offers a design engineering service to enable UAV operators and manufacturers to come up with a certifiable solution while FAA standards are still being developed.
Embention in Alicante, Spain, also advertises several certifiable autopilots, power and control components for unmanned aircraft. It manufactures a variety of Nmand-branded UAVs along with multi-rotor UAV solutions, including a drone recharging station.
Three times the cargo
Meanwhile, drone-delivery capability continues to advance with the recent introduction of the certifiable Wingcopter 198.
The Wingcopter 198 drop-winch cargo drone. (Photo: Wingcopter)
The vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) delivery drone has a triple-drop winch mechanism that allows for delivery of up to three packages per flight. The UAV takes off and lands vertically, thanks to its tilt-rotor design, and can carry a payload of up to 13 pounds. It can travel up to 47 miles on one electrical charge at up to 93 mph; with fewer packages, a range of up to 68 miles may be possible.
The VTOL UAV has redundant design elements that position it to support FAA certification. It has eight redundant motors. Also, the autopilot, airspeed sensor and battery are dual redundant. Consequently, the Wingcopter 198 is undergoing FAA-type certification in the United States.
The Wingcopter 198 also has artificially aided downward-looking cameras to support management of parcel delivery, as well as obstacle avoidance and landing.
To sum up, life may not yet be over for the Integrity UAV on Mars as it moves into a route-scouting role for the rover. There is more progress toward certifiable configurations of equipment to support unmanned integration into the NAS. Finally, last-mile parcel deliveries could benefit from higher capacity certified drone carriers.
