US drone manufacturer Matternet is preparing to carry out payload trials with Swiss Post and Swiss WorldCargo for the first time in the next two months. The pilot project between the partners moves into its second phase follows the success of drone-only trials in Switzerland last summer, Oliver Evans, head of global business development for Matternet, told The Loadstar . “The Swiss Civil Aviation Authority certified specific routes of 10-15km from Bellechasse, an airfield near Geneva used by private flyers, and we completed a number of missions without incident,” he said. “We’re now in the planning stage of repeating the exercise with real payloads of up to 1kg.” OliverEvans Matternet Mr Evans (pictured) was chief cargo officer at Swiss International Air Lines for 12 years before joining Matternet last year. He believes deliveries by drone will soon become commercial reality despite regulators’ concerns about the activities of hobbyists. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has received more than 1,000 reports of drone crashes and near-misses with aircraft over the last 18 months. The FAA missed a US Congesss deadline of September 2015 to finalise rules for commercial drone use, and expects to publish these by June. Under an interim […]
