Boeing Unveils New Cargo Drone with 500 Pound Capacity

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
13,552
Boeing has revealed a new cargo drone that can lift 500 pounds of goods. This sucker is pretty dang big and weighs 747 pounds. It has four arms with two props each and Boeing managed to get this vehicle from design to prototype in just 3 months. Drones like these are going to make local delivery of mass quantities of goods a regular everyday task without clogging up the roads. Hopefully we'll see more of these as time goes on. Check it out in the video.

Watch the video here.

“This flying cargo air vehicle represents another major step in our Boeing eVTOL strategy,” said Boeing chief technology officer Greg Hyslop in a statement. “We have an opportunity to really change air travel and transport, and we’ll look back on this day as a major step in that journey.”
 
Flying times of lightweight drones are in the 30 min max range. By Local delivery, they mean very local. The thing has to fly out there and fly back on a single charge.

Good luck with that.
 
Military.

EDIT: Oh, search and rescue could be good too. Someone down in a canyon and up to a 500lbs lift capacity? Drive the truck carrying this as close as you can get and deploy your sky-hook.
 
U-238 said:
747 lbs....

That's a lot of weight to come down on top of you if one of these things ends up falling out of the sky.
Click to expand...
Still a hell of a lot ligher than a cargo plane crashing on you. Boeing has gotten very good at making things that don't fall out of the sky ;).
 
Given all of the resources that Boeing has, I don't see the 3 months to prototype as all that impressive.

However the prototype itself is.

I can see a lot more applications other than just package delivery with it.
 
Gigus Fire said:
Flying times of lightweight drones are in the 30 min max range. By Local delivery, they mean very local. The thing has to fly out there and fly back on a single charge.

Good luck with that.
Click to expand...

I think those numbers don't apply here, did you see the size of the damned thing, it's as big as a car. It might be light but it's not small.
 
Gigus Fire said:
Flying times of lightweight drones are in the 30 min max range. By Local delivery, they mean very local. The thing has to fly out there and fly back on a single charge.

Good luck with that.
Click to expand...

It's a stepping stone. Over time things will improve.
 
500 lbs of lift capacity though, I can think of some uses for that;

31957717e7f15cd85a1b6bc2c5306898.jpg
 
lcpiper said:
I think those numbers don't apply here, did you see the size of the damned thing, it's as big as a car. It might be light but it's not small.
Click to expand...
at 700 pounds it's not light, nor is it small. Still the other vehicles that have come out with this same concept (quad copter exploded for size and weight) don't have good running times either.
Maybe, just maybe, they're using gas or another fuel to power the vehicle through a generator. Because batteries are always the limiting factor when it comes to flying time.
 
Gigus Fire said:
at 700 pounds it's not light, nor is it small. Still the other vehicles that have come out with this same concept (quad copter exploded for size and weight) don't have good running times either.
Maybe, just maybe, they're using gas or another fuel to power the vehicle through a generator. Because batteries are always the limiting factor when it comes to flying time.
Click to expand...


Maybe they just have lighter batteries....
 
I'm sorry.... but big exposed blades... "Your drone landed and cut down my tree." or... "Your drone Julianned by dog.. or small child!"
 
My dad used to work in the truck tire and services business. I hope this puts them out of business. I hate having semis on the road. They're horrible to share the road with.
 
dgingeri said:
My dad used to work in the truck tire and services business. I hope this puts them out of business. I hate having semis on the road. They're horrible to share the road with.
Click to expand...


My take has always been, if your Vehicle is too large to stay inside your lane at all times it is too big for publication roads. I hate that "this vehicle makes wide turns" nonsense.

I'd personally like to see regulations forcing as much as possible of long distance cargo transport onto rail. Long haul trucking just makes zero sense.
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
Still a hell of a lot ligher than a cargo plane crashing on you. Boeing has gotten very good at making things that don't fall out of the sky ;).
Click to expand...
Cargo planes don't generally fly over most people's backyards. One presumes they want to sell a lot more of these than they do cargo planes, otherwise they aren't very useful for delivery. I also don't think cargo planes have such limited easily exceeded range. What happens when that 10mph tail wind turns into a 30mph head wind?
 
Last edited:
Zarathustra[H] said:
My take has always been, if your Vehicle is too large to stay inside your lane at all times it is too big for publication roads. I hate that "this vehicle makes wide turns" nonsense.

I'd personally like to see regulations forcing as much as possible of long distance cargo transport onto rail. Long haul trucking just makes zero sense.
Click to expand...

I can appreciate the feelings on rail vs truck, especially on long distance hauling. Rail is SO much more efficient. However, I definitely oppose regulations forcing the point. Government interference only makes things worse.
 
WhoMe said:
Cargo planes don't generally fly over most people's backyards. One presumes they want to sell a lot more of these than they do cargo planes, otherwise they aren't very useful for delivery. I also don't think cargo planes have such limited easily exceeded range. What happens when that 10mph tail wind turns into a 30mph head wind?
Click to expand...
Actually they fly over a lot of peoples back yards, just usually at 30k+ feet so you just don't notice them.
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
Actually they fly over a lot of peoples back yards, just usually at 30k+ feet so you just don't notice them.
Click to expand...
Ok I guess I should have been specific, it's really more about the numbers anyway. I live under the LA to Seattle route and they are going by me at that altitude (a little lower AGL since I'm at 6k ft) so I do notice them a lot ;) . But remember most planes crash on take-off and landing so really only a few people near the airports really need worry. The drones will, presumably, be a bit more ubiquitous.

Edit:
One thing that might make sense is if they get to say 55% of full charge, they will auto-fly home, should reduce the risk of the guy monitoring 30 of those at a time and not noticing that he's getting near the point of no return.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
My take has always been, if your Vehicle is too large to stay inside your lane at all times it is too big for publication roads. I hate that "this vehicle makes wide turns" nonsense.

I'd personally like to see regulations forcing as much as possible of long distance cargo transport onto rail. Long haul trucking just makes zero sense.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons for hauling products across the country by truck vs rail is time.

One example; Amazon had contracted a few trucking companies and independent drivers to move their trailers from the Fairburn, GA rail yard to an Amazon FC near Tampa.

I asked if it was cheaper to move the trailers down there by rail, and my dispatcher told me that it was, but it would take up to 4 days for them to get there, and about another day to unload them, versus it taking only a few hours to drive them.

If everyone could wait for the things they needed, eliminating long haul trucking would make sense.
 
Am I the only one who noticed the hypothetical nature of the video? "If we can do this and that" This is a PR piece. Large companies like to do these things, and they mean absolutely nothing usually.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
My take has always been, if your Vehicle is too large to stay inside your lane at all times it is too big for publication roads. I hate that "this vehicle makes wide turns" nonsense.

I'd personally like to see regulations forcing as much as possible of long distance cargo transport onto rail. Long haul trucking just makes zero sense.
Click to expand...

Trucking is already heavily regulated, but you are from Massachusetts so you love more regulations.
 
wizzi01 said:
That's what i was thinking. One of these with a couple 250 lb bombs or a fleet with 500lb bombs.
Click to expand...

We already have these, although not propeller driven and far more effective. They're called Tomahawks. I could see some country like Iran or N Korea using these for automated delivery of bombs or other military resources, but I don't see them being too successful against our AA resources.
 
dgingeri said:
We already have these, although not propeller driven and far more effective. They're called Tomahawks. I could see some country like Iran or N Korea using these for automated delivery of bombs or other military resources, but I don't see them being too successful against our AA resources.
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking military. Our drones have the capacity to carry hellfires, laser guided bombs and jdams.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top