Click for YachtForums Click for Gulfstream Click for Hawker Click for Dassault Click for HondaJet

News: Ameriflight To Purchase Autonomous Cargo Planes

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Ameriflight To Purchase 20 Natilus Autonomous Cargo Planes
    eVTOLs and Electric planes are not only coming in passenger/air taxi roles the cargo sector is also increasingly seeing a change in this direction too although on a smaller scale. This is why recent news has surfaced about Feeder company Ameriflight intending to purchase 20 Natilus pilotless cargo planes. Ameriflight is a feeder company for freight logistics companies like UPS and Fedex.
  2. Natilus is currently developing a family of autonomous Kona aircraft that it assures will increase cargo volumes by approximately 60 percent while cutting environmentally harmful emissions by half. This is ambitious but the prospect has Ameriflight hooked on the future reduction of operational costs. Looking at the design of the autonomous plane it is going to be made from carbon-fiber composite airframe and a blended-wing body. This alone creates a lighter frame, better aerodynamics and with no pilots onboard and a large section, more volume can be carried. Natilus is suggesting the Kona aircraft will have a range of around 900 miles for short haul runs carrying up to seven LD3-45 small shipping containers (4.7tonnes). Natilus is planning larger aircraft in the future such as a specimen that can carry 73-tonnes and eventually a long-range version that carries 121 tonnes of freight.
  3. "As the largest U.S.-based Part 135 operator, Ameriflight ships high-priority freight to and from remote areas across the U.S. on behalf of overnight express carriers like FedEx and UPS. The Dallas-based carrier’s freight services mostly consist of 1-to-2-hr. feeder flights using small aircraft like the Embraer EMB-120, Beechcraft 1900C and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner. They are all aging platforms ripe for replacement by a more efficient aircraft like the Kona", Natilus CEO Aleksey Matyushev says.

    For more information:

    Natilus Headquarters
    San Diego, CA
    United States
    www.natilus.co

    ***
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.