First U.S. Customer Receives Pyka’s Pelican Spray Agricultural Drone

Heinen Brothers Agra Services, one of the largest privately owned aerial application service providers in North America, has become the first United States customer of the Pelican Spray autonomous electric crop protection aircraft by Pyka.

Heinen Brothers Agra Services will now begin integrating Pelican Spray, which is thought to be the world’s largest autonomous electric crop protection aircraft, into their extensive fleet of agricultural aircraft. Weighing 1,125lbs and cable of carrying up to 540lbs (70 gallons) of liquid, the autonomous Pelican Spray can spray up to 240 acres per hour.

This addition will enhance the company’s operations across the Midwest, South, and Western regions of the U.S., enabling them to better meet peak customer demand through large-scale automation of their aerial application services.

This partnership follows Pyka’s groundbreaking FAA authorization for the commercial operation of Pelican Spray in the U.S., which made Pelican Spray the largest ever UAS authorized by the FAA for commercial use and enabled Pyka to offer its innovative technology to American farmers.

“We’ve been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to begin operations with Pelican Spray,” said Lukas Koch, Chief Technology Officer at Heinen Brothers Agra Services. “As experts in aerial application, we see the potential for Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) to revolutionize our industry, offering significant cost-saving benefits to American farmers. Pelican Spray is the first autonomous agricultural solution that delivers the necessary work rate and spray performance needed to provide a viable commercial solution to begin augmenting our current fleet.

“Ultimately, we want to keep the pilots of our manned aircraft safer, so we are adopting a proactive approach that will allow UAS to handle certain workloads that will get our traditional pilots home safely to their families and loved ones. On an agronomic front, timing is very important for crop health; new tools like Pelican Spray will help us better serve our customers and their fields. These are groundbreaking times, we hope to facilitate even more agricultural innovation through collaboration with future companies that can unlock even more value from platforms like the Pelican Spray. We are excited for the future of ag aviation and look forward to a long and productive partnership with Pyka.”

“Heinen Brothers is a forward-thinking organization that embraces new technologies to enhance the capabilities of American producers and improve the nation’s food production systems overall,” said Volker Fabian, Chief Commercial Officer at Pyka. “We are thrilled to partner with them and excited to commence U.S. operations with Pelican Spray.”

The two companies will celebrate the launch of their partnership and the delivery of Pelican Spray to Heinen Brothers Agra Services with a live flight demonstration and Q&A event at Heinen Brothers’ corporate headquarters later this month.