25/12/2022
At the time he established Dronamics big tech giants like Amazon were experimenting with drone deliveries to domestic addresses. But Mr Rangelov never believed in the concept of personal goods delivered by the drone.
The practical difficulties of flying a drone right up to someone's front door were obvious to Mr Rangelov. "We couldn't buy into the concept of small drones. We took a different approach."
This take on drone delivery will bear fruit when the prototype cargo aircraft takes to the air.
Looking very much like a conventional light aircraft but without a pilot's cabin, the drone combines "cell phone economics" in terms of cheap electronics, with the ability to land on short runways, says Mr Rangelov.
It will be known as the Black Swan.
"Here in Bulgaria air cargo means one large aircraft offloading goods onto a truck which then goes to a sorting centre where the delivery is broken down for the next stage of its journey to individual sites."
He thinks taking a smaller load to a short airstrip closer to the final recipient will cut costs and take trucks off the road.
"There are 3,000 airstrips across Europe, that's a lot of locations."
Black Swan embodies a combination of lightweight composite materials (his brother's speciality) and a standard piston engine that sips petrol while the drone cruises on long and fuel efficient wings.
This whole package will fly at 20,000ft altitude,below the mass of passenger air traffic. Dronamics sees this height band as unused airspace and is also testing out a new, synthetic aviation fuel which it claims will allow carbon-neutral flights.
The 350kg (770lb) cargo load of the Black Swan equals that of a small courier van. "We're connecting city to city, not door to door."
Dronamics plans to operate Black Swans like an airline, "Europe's first drone cargo airline." It will charge by weight or charter, cutting out the cost and time taken by vehicles that criss-cross Europe to deliver essential goods and parts.
