Airbound raises $37M for autonomous drone delivery network
Airbound has raised $37 million to scale its autonomous drone delivery network, backed by a new Andhra Pradesh deployment deal.
The big question for aerial delivery pilots has always been whether the underlying aircraft economics can compete with a truck on cost and a plane on speed in the same shipment. Airbound’s pitch to investors and to the Andhra Pradesh government is that it can.
Transport aircraft have changed little in basic architecture over time, according to Airbound. A purpose-built aircraft carrying a single passenger or around 100kg of cargo typically weighs about 400kg once fuel and payload are counted. Most of that weight lifts the aircraft itself, not the cargo. Airbound says its aircraft are designed to invert that ratio, so the payload accounts for most of the weight in flight.
The company describes its approach as combining advances in autonomy and materials science with what it calls physics-first...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to iottechnews.com. To see the full text click HERE
