FlyingBasket is a leading developer of heavy-lift cargo drones for commercial and civil applications.
The company manufacturers the FB3, a heavy-payload cargo drone that provides a combination of carrying capacity and compact size. The all-electric platform requires no disassembly and can be easily transported inside a van or trailer, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
FlyingBasket sits down with unmannedsystemstechnology.com to discuss the company’s cargo drones, highlighting capabilities and deployment examples, and technology advancements for heavy-lift cargo drone operations.
What are the primary industries currently benefiting from FlyingBasket’s cargo drone solutions, and how do your drones enhance their operations?
Many industries, operations of which require deliveries for short-medium distances, are already benefiting from our cargo drones. One of the most efficient ways of using our drones is to deploy them in the energy sector, for example making deliveries to the wind turbines. Our drones transport tools, spare parts, and even heavy components to remote wind turbines or power lines, eliminating the need for helicopters or cranes, which are costly and emissions heavy. We provide an airborne alternative to traditional lifting equipment, enabling deliveries to challenging sites, from mountain lodges to urban rooftops. Basically, whatever logistics or lifting issue can benefit from drones that would either reduce time or improve safety or both. By removing logistical bottlenecks, we make aerial lifting faster, safer, and more cost-effective, allowing industries to focus on what truly matters—efficiency, sustainability, and innovation.
How do FlyingBasket’s drones navigate complex environments such as mountainous regions, urban areas, or offshore locations?
Our drones can fly in all kinds of environments and every environment requires a different approach. We learned a lot from the field and implemented iterative enhancements so that our customers can fully exploit the created solution despite certain challenges. For example, we can fly in ice cold weather as well as hot desert temperatures, and we can fly thousands of meters above the sea level so that most of the mountain contexts are feasible for our drones. The urban areas a more complex and require more safety mitigations and precautions, on the bright side the reception there is not a problem.
How do your drones integrate with existing logistics and supply chain infrastructure, and what are the key benefits of using them over traditional transport methods?
Using drones doesn’t require building separate infrastructure, which makes them a flexible means, that can take off from a trailer of a car as its size to payload ratio is quite high. Adding drones to the existing synergies will not only innovate the existing logistics and transportation, but also will save time and money to those who deploy them.
If there is a solution like drones for an application that you think needs more efficiency- it’s high time to consider integrating it into your business’ needs. For instance- cable stringing missions, where in some countries it is still done by people actually pulling the cable, in other situations it can be a helicopter, but frankly the helicopter pilots are not excited to be tethered to a powerline tower. In the event when the people are doing the job – and are talking 15 people per cable, two cables per day for example, while our drone can pull the cable with the help of just one technician who is not subject to risk and manage to pull 6 cables in half a day, the comparison becomes drastic.
As another example – drone last mile logistics that connect the mainland and the islands, a project that we’ve done with the Italian Post and our drones were employed in a 4 months service to bring letters and packages instead of using a ship. While cranes are bulky and limited in reach, while helicopters are expensive and fairly polluting, our drones fill the gaps where the other means don’t make sense to use anymore.
Can you share a real-world example where FlyingBasket’s cargo drones have played a critical role in enhancing logistics efficiency, improving operational safety, or solving a unique transportation challenge?
That’s a great question, have you seen the Skylift’s mission for Ørsted last summer? They used our heavy lift drones to bring equipment from the vessels to the tops of the wind turbines. The wind farm was located in the North Sea. Skylift delivered cargo boxes, weighing up to 85kg each to 94 wind turbines, making it 5460kg transported in total, a process that took only 10 days to complete. That mission alone proved that this can be done 10 or even 15 times faster than the previously used methods. Its missions like these we’re extremely proud of- where forward-looking people adopt the innovation in new contexts and as an outcome we get a game-changing scenario.
What advancements in drone technology do you see as crucial for the future of heavy-lift cargo drone operations?
There are a lot of various manufacturers today, and all are covering specific needs, what we all share as a common need is the regulatory framework that will grow alongside with the technology advancements, as it’s in the interest of everyone to fly safely. Speaking of the drone advancements overall we believe that the battery technology has to take a leap in terms of capacity to weight ratio, which is already seen in various manufacturers, for example our partner Molicel is constantly producing new battery cells that are more efficient with every iteration. From our side as manufacturers, we clearly have to be ready for the challenging applications that customers come to us with, and if we managed to develop use cases for so many to date, we hope that the global supply chain will be a cooperative element in all this, to enable the innovation thrive the way it should.
To find out more about FlyingBasket and the company’s cargo drone solutions, visit their website.
