Not being able to build drones myself, I was looking for an engineer to team up. “As I already had some experience with commercial drone services, I fell in love with the idea of using drones for the delivery of urgently needed medical goods to create positive social impact. “In 2015, I came back from a longer stay in Ghana where I had seen the negative consequences of poorly developed healthcare supply chains,” Plümmer told VentureBeat via email. The company focuses on the delivery of medical goods, packages, and food as well as inspection, inter-site logistics, and mapping via photogrammetry using aircraft that operates in wind gusts over 45 miles per hour, reaches speeds upwards of 150 miles per hour (in fixed-wing mode), and carries payloads weighing up to 13 pounds. Wingcopter, which was founded in 2017 by Ansgar Kadura, Jonathan Hesselbarth, and Tom Plümmer, aims to develop drones that improve the lives through commercial and humanitarian applications. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly automated drones beyond the line of sight. And last week, startup American Robotics snagged the first-ever U.S. Honeywell, a major supplier of aerospace systems, launched a new business unit covering drones, air taxis, and unmanned cargo delivery vehicles. But the pandemic has increased demand for drone services in areas such as medical supply deliveries and site inspections. The commercial drone market was already accelerating, with reports the industry would grow more than fivefold by 2026 from the $1.2 billion it was reportedly worth in 2018. The company says it will use the proceeds to expand its health care-related activities (including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines), prepare for the launch of its next-gen drones, set up a partially automated production facility, and grow its team at a new U.S. Wingcopter, a Darmstadt, Germany-based drone manufacturer, today announced that it raised $22 million in a funding round led by Xplorer Capital and Futury Regio Growth Fund. Pre-orders can already be placed.Connect with top gaming leaders in Los Angeles at GamesBeat Summit 2023 this May 22-23. It can accurately lower a package through a winch mechanism, or land at the point of destination and return to its origin with new payload. The current model of the delivery drone being used in these efforts, the Wingcopter 178 Heavy Lift, provides both one- and two-way delivery, covering distances of up to 120 kilometers. The German drone manufacturer also partnered with UNICEF’s African Drone and Data Academy, training local youth in drone operations, from mission planning to piloting beyond visual line of sight delivery. In addition to their efforts distributing COVID-19 vaccines, Wingcopter recently started a long-term project in Malawi, Drone + Data Aid, to improve healthcare supply chains together with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Their new headquarters – which is already home to more than 100 employees - will allow for production to be ramped up to meet the ever-growing global demand of the industry. Wingcopter will also expand its manufacturing capabilities at home in Weiterstadt, Germany. “With the support and powerful networks of our investors we are taking a huge step closer to fulfilling our vision of creating efficient and sustainable drone solutions that improve and save lives everywhere.” COVID-19 has severely exacerbated a problem that affects billions of people worldwide, and Wingcopter’s plans will continue beyond the pandemic’s eventual end. One of the major barriers to the equitable distribution of medical resources is poor infrastructure – a problem Wingcopter is hoping to solve, Plümmer said. “This chapter of our journey is dedicated to setting up logistical highways in the sky that leapfrog traditional means of transportation.” “Our team is driven by tackling the world’s challenges through scalable innovations,” said Wingcopter CEO Tom Plümmer. Wingcopter has secured $22 million in Series A funding to strengthen its leadership in drone-based logistics, with a special focus on healthcare-related applications including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
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