The subsidiary of Rostec will test drones for mail delivery

The Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA), which is part of the Rostec State Corporation Aviation Closure, is working on a commercial project for the delivery of postal items using drones. It is assumed that the tests of drones as part of this project will be held in the Sverdlovsk region in the next three years.

According to RBC , a representative of the Uzga, the purpose of the project is to build infrastructure for the civilian unmanned aviation industry, like a network of regional airfields. In June 2020, the first, research, stage stage, which will last a year and a half, and piloting of postal drones will begin in 2022. The Uzga also said that the drones are already undergoing the first tests. The devices are an airplane type drunks with a rescue parachute system, which will be adapted both for postal transport and for monitoring the terrain using cameras. The maximum load capacity of drones will be 20 kilograms, the flight range is 1200 kilometers, the maximum speed is 150 kilometers per hour.

The plan provides that regional airfields will be used to take off and planting drones. As part of the first stage of tests, six drones will regularly deliver parcels between Ural logistics centers at the airfields of Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil and Serov. At the same time, four drones controlled from three control stations will be in the sky. Tests will allow you to work out the interaction of drones among themselves, emergency flight scenarios, etc. According to the representative of the UZG, it is also planned to use vertical take-off and landing devices, which can be used in settlements that do not have their own runway.

According to the project developers, its total value is 750 million rubles. According to Uzga, at the stage of research work, the plant claims 69% of the participation of budget funds and 31% of its own. Within the framework of the pilot project, it is planned to attract venture financing of the joint venture of the UZG and the Russian venture company with a contribution to the authorized capital in proportions of 51 and 49%, respectively. In case of successful testing in the Sverdlovsk region, they plan to expand the project to the northern territories of the Ural Federal District, Siberia and the Far East.

The prepared UZG presentation of the project says that the plant is negotiating about participation with the Russian Post and the VSK insurance house, which proposed cooperation in the development of insurance services for the owners of drones, senders of goods and other project participants. The representative of the Uzga said that the plant received a preliminary approval of the project from the Russian Post and VSK, but the representative of the Russian Post did not give a certain answer to the question whether the organization intends to participate in the pilot project.