Wingcopter GmbH is a German

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...

company that designs and manufactures unmanned

eVTOL An electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is a variety of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft that uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically. This technology came about thanks to major advances in elec ...

delivery drone A delivery drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used to transport packages for use cases that include medical supplies, fresh food, live ammunition, or other goods. Delivery drones are typically autonomous and electric, and operated as a pa ...

s capable of providing last-mile delivery as well as mapping, surveying, and inspection. Their flagship drone, Wingcopter 178 Heavy Lift (HL), set the Guinness world speed record for remote-controlled tilt-rotor aircraft in 2018, flying at an average speed of 240.6 km/hr. To date, the company has partnered with commercial and humanitarian organizations to perform drone delivery of critical supplies in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, the South Pacific,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. During the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

pandemic, Wingcopter partnered with

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

, Skyports, and the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

to provide beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) delivery of medical test samples and other supplies to a hospital on a remote Scottish island. The company has been recognized by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

as "2020 Technology Pioneer". The company is amongst ten other drone companies to be selected by

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

to participate in a

type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applic ...

program for

History

Wingcopter GmbH was founded in 2017 by Jonathan Hesselbarth, Tom Plümmer, and Ansgar Kadura in Darmstadt,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 2018, the company partnered with DHL and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for

Economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to deliver medicine and critical supplies to the Ukerewe island district of Lake Victoria,

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

. In 2019, the company partnered with

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

to set up an on-demand delivery network, supplying 19 remote villages with vaccines from one central hub on the South Pacific

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

of Pentecost,

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. The Wingcopter 178 HL has also been used to survey

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s in the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

region. During the 2020 African Drone Forum, Wingcopter was judged as the winner of the Emergency Delivery category of the Flying Competition and received a special award for its safety procedures. In 2020, Corecam Capital Partners invested several million euros into the company as seed funding In January 2021, Wingcopter raised $22 million in its Seris A funding round, intending to expand its operations into the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. Its investors include Xplorer Capital, which has previously invested in ride-hailing service

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

and

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...

start-up Zoox. In May 2022, Wingcopter announced a partnership with Continental Drones designed to establish a delivery network spanning 49 countries across Sub-Sahara Africa. The deal sets the goal of deploying 12,000 of Wingcopter’s 198 drone systems over the course of the next 5 years.

Aircraft

W178

Wingcopter 178 is the first mass produced version of the Wingcopter drones which first took flight in early 2013. At present, the drone has an external dimension of 178 cm x 132 cm x 52 cm and can carry a payload of up to 6 kg in its external transportation box measuring 103 cm x 87 cm x 57. The aircraft is capable of beyond visual line of sight flight and can transition from hover to fixed-wing flight configuration during forward flight by making use of its proprietary

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a trans ...

mechanism. To deliver its payload, the drone can employ a winch mechanism to slow-drop a single-use cargo box at the location without the need for landing. It can also deliver and collect cargo by landing at the destination to enable two-way delivery of medical samples, lab results, and supplies.

W198

Wingcopter 198 is the latest commercial drone launched by wingcopter in April 2021 and is the world's first triple drop delivery drone. It has an external dimension of 198 x 152 x 65 cm and can carry up to three packages up to 5 kg. The drones, have automated sensors and software to avoid obstacles and drop parcels at designated sites, enabling one operator to monitor and control up to 10 of these new drones.

Projects

Humanitarian mission

As part of a humanitarian aid project in Malawi in 2019/20, medicines were delivered by Wingcopter to remote areas that were partially cut off from the outside world by a flood. Wingcopter has also been active with

and DHL in delivering

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

s and other medications in

and some African nations. Along with

and

n Drone & Data Academy (ADDA), it aims to use Wingcopter drones to improve health supply chains during

and to open up new long-term opportunities for Africa's youth. It was announced as one of the winners of the German government’s €24 million COVID-19 hackathon to combat corona-related repercussions in Africa. As a part of this project, Wingcopter envisions setting up a locally operated delivery drone network in

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...

to support the local healthcare system. In parallel, the partners will also build local capacity through two distinct training programs for 160 Malawian youths. After proving the concept’s viability and successful implementation in Malawi, Wingcopter and UNICEF plan to adapt the concept and scale to Rwanda. Wingcopter Vaccine

Partnership with UPS

In 2020, Wingcopter partnered with

UPS UPS or ups may refer to: Companies and organizations * United Parcel Service, an American shipping company ** The UPS Store, UPS subsidiary ** UPS Airlines, UPS subsidiary * Underground Press Syndicate, later ''Alternative Press Syndicate'' or ...

to develop the next generation of package

s. Together, they will be working towards building a diverse fleet of drones with varying capabilities to meet even more potential customer needs. As part of this collaboration, both companies will work toward earning regulatory certification for Wingcopter drones to make commercial delivery flights in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and beyond.

Inter-city delivery

Wingcopter in partnership with

Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences The Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (previously known as the Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main) is a public University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences provides about ...

has teamed up with

Merck Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including: * the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668 ** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...

to transport pigment samples from a Merck site in

Gernsheim Gernsheim () is a town in Groß-Gerau district and Darmstadt region in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Rhine. Geography Location The ''Schöfferstadt Gernsheim'', as Gernsheim may officially call itself – it was Peter Schöffer's birthplace – ...

to a lab in Darmstadt (around 25 km). The proposed project aims to replace the existing slower, less sustainable, and more expensive van delivery program.

Drone specifications

Wingcopter 178 / 198

Construction: Composite (

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

and

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

)

References

External links

Wingcopter official website
{{Authority control Darmstadt Companies based in Hesse Unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturers of Germany 2017 establishments Urban air mobility EVTOL aircraft