UPS feeder airline Ameriflight intends to buy 20 pilotless cargo planes
A futuristic Kona cargo aircraft being developed by San Diego-based Natilus would carry much heavier loads than small drones for last-mile delivery. Cargo airline Ameriflight is considering purchasing the aircraft.
A large, regional feeder airline for UPS and other overnight express carriers last week tentatively committed to buy 20 remote-controlled cargo planes, with a novel design, for middle-mile deliveries.
Ameriflight, which flies 156 small turboprop aircraft daily to more than 200 destinations in the U.S. and the Caribbean, signed a letter of intent with San Diego-based Natilus for 20 Kona feeder aircraft valued at $134 million, the companies announced.
Natilus is developing a family of pilotless aircraft it claims will increase cargo volume by 60% and cut carbon emissions in half, thereby making air shipments more affordable. The efficiency gains are possible because of carbon-fiber composite airframes and a blended-wing body — essentially a uniframe in which sections meld together — that creates more usable volume and better aerodynamics than a traditional airliner.
The absence of pilots also leaves more room for cargo.
The Kona is a short-haul feeder aircraft with a maximum payload of 4.7 tons and 900-mile range designed to carry the equivalent of seven LD3-45 small shipping containers. It is powered by two rear propeller engines. Other variants are a medium-haul jet with a 73-ton capacity, similar to a Boeing 767, and a long-range unmanned vehicle with a 121-ton payload.
The triangular blended wing-body configuration is a departure from tube-and-wing aircraft, which are loaded in a linear fashion. By rotating the cargo to 45 degrees, the diamond configuration maximizes space in the aircraft for more loading positions, a highly desirable quality in an e-commerce era when light boxes fill up planes before the takeoff weight limit is reached. Natilus aircraft will be smaller in size than their legacy counterparts, with more volume, according to the company.
Traditional fuselage cross sections are optimized for passengers, with a circular design to aid cabin pressurization. But cargo naturally moves best in rectangular boxes or pallets. Fitting rectangular pallets in a circular fuselage section leaves plenty of empty space. A blended-wing body configuration allows for a single rectangular cross section and full utilization of the available volume.
Collins Aerospace will provide the cargo loading system.
Co-founder and CEO Aleksey Matyushev has described the blended-wing Natilus concept as an attempt to combine the timeliness of airfreight with significant cost reductions that bring shipping to the point of being a commodity — as it is in ocean freight.