LONDON – In big news for the autonomous cargo aircraft market, U.S company Natilus has announced it has received $6bn worth of purchase commitments for its aircraft.
The $6bn worth of commitments represent over 440 of these autonomous cargo aircraft to be delivered to the following customers:
- Volatus Aerospace
- Astral Aviation
- Aurora
- Dymond
- Flexport
Natilus noted that they have more customers to announce over the weeks and months ahead.
Flexport was the most recent customer, signing a Letter of Intent for two 100T Natilus aircraft, with an option for a third.
The company has pledged to generate a 60% reduction in cost as well as 50% fewer carbon emissions on its range of aircraft.
Below, you can see two photos consisting of renderings of these new autonomous cargo aircraft:
Commenting on this order was CEO and co-founder Aleksey Matyushev:
“In parallel with the development of our family of autonomous aircraft, we are working closely with customers to increase the efficiency of air transportation and make it more competitive and safer than ocean shipping”.
“Today, there are only two ways to move cargo internationally: by air and by sea. The difference between the cost and time of these two modes of transportation is dramatic.”
“Sea freight is currently 13 times less expensive than air freight; but 50 times slower in delivery.”
“Natilus intends to revolutionize the transport industry by providing the timeliness of air freight at an affordable cost reduction of 60%, making air cargo transportation substantially more competitive.”
Natilus aims to penetrate the following markets:
- 8-ton payload short-haul feeder UAV.
- 60-ton payload medium/long range UAV.
- 100 ton payload long-range UAV.
- 130-ton payload long-range UAV.
In all, it remains clear that the number of commitments Natilus has for these aircraft are off to a strong start, and will no doubt continue to grow over the next few years, especially in the development stages.
