Sat, May 14, 2022
Wingcopter 198 Hops New Milestone With Special Class Airworthiness
Yesterday, it was announced that German-based Wingcopter had reached a significant milestone in the trajectory of their winged 8-engine drone, having received a Special Class Airworthiness Certification from the FAA.
An interesting feature of the 198 is the fact that it utilizes tilt-rotor technology which lends itself to greater maneuverability and stability unlike many of its ‘fixed-prop’ counterparts. The Wingcopter 198, billed as the world’s first ‘triple-drop delivery drone’ is now potentially on track to achieve Type Certification to engage in regular operations in the United States.
On their website, Wingcopter has showcased their success stories of tests in countries for use cases such as medical delivery (Ireland, Scotland, Malawi, Vanuatu), industrial sample delivery in Germany, wildlife conservation in Canada, and volcanological research in Italy. In Ireland, the medical delivery was beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)! The device has a range of about 68 miles without payload, and drops to just over 46 miles with a 10lb load. It has an advertised service ceiling of just over 3 miles and normal cruise is about 62mph
Should it eventually obtain full Type Certification, then we can expect to see commercial drone application and delivery services in the U.S. national airspace system, possibly including populated areas! This development is being closely watched by other manufacturers and designers, possibly as a template for their own march to market. More importantly, Wingcopter sees the significant step on this small scale as a precursor to copy/paste and supersize it for business use. When final FAA approval is in hand, they anticipate a less challenging path for certification in other countries and related markets.
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