New Product – RDSX Pelican Hybrid VTOL Commercial Delivery Drone
No single platform can fulfill every UAS delivery mission. To provide full-service UAV drone delivery, a service provider will need a fleet of short, medium and long-range UAV platforms capable of depositing payloads in an array of settings. Today, we are excited to announce the rollout of our new flagship long-range delivery drone, the RDSX Pelican.
Capable of carrying payloads up to 5 kg on routes up to 40 km, the Pelican is a highly efficient platform for your last-mile fleet.Unladen it can travel 50km, and configured for heavy lift can haul up to 8kg. It is thoughtfully designed to minimize potential points of failure and reduce the overall cost-per-kilometer of logistics operations, all while providing maximum payload flexibility. The Pelican is available in multiple configurations featuring our RDS2 UAS winch, or a simplified servo-release. Additionally, our team is able to fully customize the cargo bay to satisfy any unique mission criteria you may face.
Unit Economics to Scale Drone Delivery Operations
Delivery drones are uniquely capable of transporting payloads faster, cheaper and more sustainably than traditional vehicles or ships. While many last-mile terrestrial or seaborn deliveries are already possible with unmanned aerial vehicles, the unit costs of those deliveries need to continue to fall for the industry to truly scale.
While localized labor costs are outside our control, in designing the new RDSX Pelican, our development team has put these unit economics front and center. To maximize scalability of your drone delivery ecosystem, the RDSX Pelican was designed to minimize operational costs for commercial drone delivery fleets. Boasting an attractive 13 cents/kg/km operating cost when fully loaded, the Pelican delivers the efficiency, payload capacity and reach needed to scale a commercial drone delivery operation.
We have been able to reduce these operational costs by simplifying the Pelican’s airframe. With no ailerons, elevator or rudder, the Pelican’s durable-yet-simple design eliminates common points of failure and exponentially extends operational time between maintenance overhauls. In short, the Pelican keeps you in the air longer. Designed to satisfy the 55-pound takeoff weight limitation for FAA Part 107 compliance, the Pelican is ready to go to work in the US and around the world.
Simple-Yet-Robust Design That Boosts Reliability and Range
The new Pelican leverages a hybrid VTOL airframe with no control surfaces to combine the reliability and flight stability of a multirotor platform, with the extended range of a fixed wing craft. With no servos to replace and minimal moving parts, the Pelican’s design allows it to go longer between recommended maintenance overhauls. This simplified design not only reduces downtime but also keeps the airframe costs down.
Outfitted with our RDS2 drone winch, the Pelican becomes a truly flexible delivery drone ready to meet evolving missions in the field. The Pelican requires no specialty delivery boxes, so it seamlessly integrates with just about any logistics ecosystem. With capacity for parcels up to 400 x 300 x 300mm, a wide variety of payloads can be accepted.
Integrating the RDS2 winch also means the tethered delivery method can be employed even if there is no recipient available to receive the payload. Our patent-pending payload auto-release mechanism simply releases the package as it touches down at the end of the winch tether. A quick swap to the general payload hook means the Pelican can also deliver and retrieve parcels up to 5 kg.
Fully Customizable for Unique Mission Parameters
Starting at $29,000, the Pelican is available in multiple configurations. With the purpose-built RDS2 drone delivery winch onboard, the Pelican enables deliveries from altitude where spinning propellers are kept far from people and property, mitigating consumer privacy concerns of low-flying drones while abating intrusive rotor noise. This tethered delivery method is also ideal for depositing payloads into forested areas, unknown topography, or other locations where the drone is unable to land.
Alternatively, for missions in which the drone is able to safely land at its destination, a simple servo-release mechanism can release payloads. Opting for this configuration also expand the Pelican’s payload capacity.
Beyond logistics use cases like residential deliveries or logistics support, the Pelican can be fully customized to suit unique mission criteria such as aerial mapping, drone inspection, search and rescue operations, water sample collection, offshore deliveries, mining, etc.
Now Accepting Pre-Orders
We are now accepting pre-orders for the RDSX Pelican which will be fulfilled on a first-come-first-served basis with initial deliveries expected for June 2023. If you are looking to expand your drone delivery fleets, or are in customizing a UAV platform for your one-of-a-kind mission, please contact our team to schedule a consultation today.