Natilus BWB cargo UAV family

[trose213]

This startup, Natilus, is working on a 737 sized cargo hauling UAV

Natilus - Reinventing Global Air Freight

Transforming the world’s supply chain with next-generation cargo aircraft More space. Maximum efficiency. Our blended-wing-body design is more aerodynamically efficient, reducing drag which translates into decreased fuel consumption and lower operating costs. Our patent-pending ‘Diamond’ Read more…

www.natilus.co

Unmanned Cargo Aircraft Take A Step Closer To Market | Aviation Week Network

Startups report progress with full-scale prototypes as Bell and Boeing test eVTOL unmanned cargo aircraft.

aviationweek.com

Drone-maker Natilus completes prototype taxi tests, releases images | Air Cargo Next

Natilus, the cargo drone startup, has completed the latest phase of taxi tests on water for a 30-foot-long prototype of its planned, large-scale unmanned cargo aircraft. Aleksey Matyushev, CEO of Natilus, told Air Cargo World the prototype has been undergoing taxi testing since February. “The...

aircargoworld.com

 

[TomcatViP]

IMOHO the massive cargo door on the LE will be quite a design challenge, even before any certification attempt.

 

[trose213]

I don't know how representative that is because they haven't revealed anything in a while and they wasted a lot of time on their sea drone, when the FAA changed the rules.

Podcast Ep. #28 – Natilus: the Startup Building Large Autonomous Cargo Drones

Aleksey Matyushev is the co-founder and CEO of Natilus, a startup headquartered in San Francisco. Natilus has set out to reduce global air freight costs through the use of large autonomous drones, …

aerospaceengineeringblog.com

 

[GTX]

Advance Air Mobility Avenue

www.aamavenue.com

 

[Reaper]

I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption

 

[windcalm]

Too many cooks..?

https://simpleflying.com/zeroaviar-blended-wing-body-hydrogen-cargo-aircraft/

 

[Avimimus]

I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.

 

[alberchico]

I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.

The big problem is that there already are specialized freighters like the ATR-72F and Cessna Skycourier that can do a very cost effective job of moving containers around with much less risk than this project. The odds that a small startup can successfully build and certify a complex design like a BWB are also slim. Even designing the smaller turboprop variant is going to be an enormous challenge.

Also, this is not the first attempt to build a small dedicated freighter. This old thread has a wealth of info about a previous project that attracted serious interest from FedEx before floundering.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ayres-lm200-loadmaster.587/

 

[Reaper]

I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.

Airbus has researched the blended wing body concept since the 80ties and came to the conclusion, that the wing and tube concept is lower risk than engineering a new BWB, even if the performance is superior. It is not clear till today if Airbus even made money on the A-380. So I dont see a startup breaking into that market, especially if they dont have a couple of billions in their back pocket. It might work, if they find a different use case for the aircraft.