- il y a 18 heures
The Future is in the Air
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TechnologieTranscription
00:01I would like to welcome to the stage a company called Apelion, and Apelion are producing cargo drones for deliveries,
00:11and here to tell you more is Andreas from Apelion.
00:17The floor is yours.
00:20Hello everybody, good afternoon, happy to have you here actually on this late Friday afternoon.
00:27My name is Andreas, I'm the founder of Apelion.
00:31We actually work on rural air transport solutions, so we connect remote places, hard to reach places, everywhere where you
00:41don't have very good ground-based infrastructure, so it's maybe difficult to reach a place because there are mountains, you
00:49need to build bridges, tunnels or roads, and maybe it's not affordable or not achievable to do that actually.
00:55So, yeah, we work on solutions that actually help us to overcome that problem and to serve as rural air
01:04transportation solutions.
01:07We start with our, actually, history, and for that I'll just show you a short video.
01:14That's actually our facility in Vienna. We are based in Austria. And, yeah, we do a lot of prototyping ourselves.
01:22We do all the stuff that we need to build the vehicles.
01:25We investigated a lot of time to do research and focus on key technologies, build demonstrators, new concept of aircraft,
01:36all electric propulsion.
01:37And we do a lot of testing, flight testing, but also subscale testing. And, yeah, here we test more or
01:47less one of our largest demonstrators that has about 100 kilograms and wingspan of five meters.
01:55And we do that to validate mathematical models, actually, but also to understand what are the strengths and the weaknesses
02:06of each concept and each technology.
02:08And, yeah, this is more or less the baseline for what we are doing now. So, we have learned in
02:18these years of research and now we are heading to the market.
02:22We are looking now direct to the market with a new product. That's our product, actually. And, yeah, that's a
02:32vertical takeoff and landing vehicle.
02:35It's a drone, actually. It is able to fly 100 kilometers per hour. It can carry up to 10 kilogram
02:45of payload and maximum distance of 150 kilometers.
02:49Of course, this depends on how much you load on the aircraft and what the weather conditions are and several
02:56other factors. But, basically, it's the maximum of 150 kilometers.
03:01Yeah, it's actually pure electric. I mentioned it already. So, you have batteries installed, but it's also prepared for hydrogen
03:10power.
03:10So, you have a place to store also the fuel tank for hydrogen fuel tank and the fuel cell. And
03:20with that, you can extend and push the range to much more, actually.
03:24But for the beginning, it's 150 kilometers with battery power. Yeah, actually, we build it to transport. So, actually, what
03:36is important is that we can transport a box like this.
03:40So, that's the shape and the volume and the size that you can put into the fuselage. So, you open
03:47the nose and it slides in. It is a cargo box and this is just an example.
03:54As you see here, that's another example, actually. And the box is made for the use case, actually. So, we
03:59design the box for the use case itself. If you transport, for example, spare parts, then it's maybe a box
04:07of paper.
04:07But if you transport medical goods, for example, you need an insulation, maybe as you see here.
04:13But it can also be that you want to have an active cooling system. So, then part of the box
04:20will be an active cooling system and you can plug it to the power supply of the aircraft.
04:26So, that's the space that we have in the cargo bay. And actually, it is the dimensions that you have
04:35to keep and whatever is inside decides the customer or the use case, actually.
04:40So, yeah, that's what we're going to transport. And it depends on the use case, how it looks like.
04:50Our initial focus is actually medical transport. The medical transport is a, well, I think already well known application and
04:59it's socially also accepted.
05:01And a lot of people immediately know what we do here. So, for example, we transport blood or we transport
05:10medicine or maybe blood samples that are taken during a surgery and have to go to a hospital.
05:17Yeah, actually, it's a solution that offers very fast and direct connection between two points. So, that's why it's very
05:26ideal for a medical use case, actually.
05:30Yeah, but we are also having a focus on other solutions or other use cases, actually. So, offshore delivery, for
05:38example. So, you can go from the shoreline to a ship or to a platform or to a wind park,
05:44for example.
05:45So, maybe there are spare parts needed. Maybe there's urgent medicine needed. Yeah, you name it. And yeah, there are
05:54also regions which are hard to reach and where a driver is going
05:58several hundred kilometres or 100 kilometres in one direction to bring just one parcel. That's not very efficient. So, here
06:07you can use drones as well, for example, in Australia or other parts of the world for postal delivery or
06:15retail delivery.
06:16You know, there are also a lot of projects going on. Yeah, well, actually, our initial use case is, as
06:26I said, medical drones.
06:27And this is our launch and customer in Austria. We are working together with the leading air rescue provider in
06:34Austria. They operate plenty of helicopters and they are actually extending their portfolio of services.
06:42And now we are connecting hospitals with hospitals or laboratories with this drone and deliver, for example, blood or blood
06:54samples, medicine, medical cutlery, everything you can think of that is of priority cargo in the medical sector, actually.
07:02Yeah, and we have here a very good partner, actually, which is already experienced in the medical sector in aviation.
07:11So, a perfect match, actually. And yeah, now we are actually also looking for more customers as well.
07:18We are looking for two more launching customers, actually. So, we are exploring now every opportunity. That's also why we
07:28are here, for example. But we also have visited places in Africa to see where we have opportunities, where there
07:36are good use cases, where we can more or less bring a benefit with our solution.
07:41Because at the end, it needs to be a business. So, it has to be really a benefit for the
07:47customer and for the people on site. And then it's also a business for us.
07:52Yeah. So, this is one topic where I welcome everybody to reach out to us. If there is a use
07:59case that you have in mind, please reach out to us.
08:04Yeah. It's very important to also highlight that you actually have a sustainable solution. And you know, very often people
08:12complain that aviation is not sustainable.
08:15Well, you have to do it the right way. And if you compare it, for example, to a car that
08:20transports only this package of five kilograms, well, then it's not very efficient to go by car.
08:28The car is weighing about one to two tons. And you move one to two tons just because you want
08:34to transport five to ten kilograms. So, not very efficient.
08:38And also, we can take the direct route. And that's much better. And if you add everything together, we actually
08:46need 11 times less energy for transporting this size of package, actually.
08:52So, it's a sustainable way if you do it the right way. If you fly for, in this case, 400
08:58kilometers. If you go for only two kilometers, five kilometers, then it doesn't make sense.
09:03Then better you take the bike or you walk or you take the car. But stay on ground for two
09:09or five kilometers. It's not needed to fly.
09:12But if you take a higher, a longer distance, if you go for 100 kilometers, for example, then it makes
09:18sense. Then it's sustainable.
09:20So, yeah. And also, if the region is hard to reach, if there is not a good infrastructure, then, of
09:28course, it even pays off more.
09:30Yeah. And it can be faster. That's clear. Depending on traffic, it can be even more faster. Or if the
09:36road is difficult or not good.
09:38Because if you look at, let's say, remote places, very often, you don't have a good infrastructure and you need
09:45some hours to cover 100 kilometers.
09:48Yeah. So, it's a sustainable business as well. Okay. That's actually our story in a nutshell. We are now looking
09:58actually for customers, as I told you, but also for investors to scale our company and to do the next
10:05steps to go for serious development and serious production and to serve our customers actually.
10:13So, I'm inviting all of you to our booth. We are in the mobility and smart cities sector. We have
10:22our vehicle there. So, in full scale, one to one, we can show you how to load and unload the
10:27vehicle. We have the packages there. Yeah. Make yourself available at our booth. And I'm happy to share more if
10:39you visit us. Thank you very much. And have a good day. Thank you.
10:42Thank you. Great. Thank you. All right. Well, we've still got three minutes left for questions. So, you guys got
10:49some questions for Apelion? Any questions about the drone, about the logistics? Yeah, please. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, he's great,
11:06my colleague. Super, super on the board.
11:09So, yeah. So, what gave you the idea to make this device? So, what gave you the idea to? Make
11:16this device. To make this device. Okay. What inspired you to create this device?
11:21Yeah. Thank you. Well, actually, I'm an aviation enthusiast, but I work in the aviation industry since, actually, I finished
11:30my studies. So, I studied mechanical engineering, focused on aerospace engineering. I did a commercial pilot education.
11:38But since I finished my studies. But since I finished my studies, I'm working as an engineer. And I joined
11:42several projects. Like, for example, I was working on structure for the Airbus A380, but also joined a special project
11:49like solar impulse flying around the world.
11:51So, I'm actually in aviation since, yeah, I can think of. So, it's my passion. And I see a very
12:00big potential if you really use it the right way. And if you tackle the challenges of today's aviation. And
12:08I think then we have a very good solution that helps us to improve our life, actually.
12:15Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We have another question? Great. Thank you.
12:21So, it's a flying object. How do you, how will you do with regulations? Do you will talk to governments?
12:31Or how do you comply with the regulation? Because there is no, there is really no object, flying objects like
12:38this. So, there will be regulations and I won't know.
12:42Actually, regulations are very important. You have to consider them from right from the beginning. And you're right. We have
12:48to pay attention to that. We are involved also in working groups dealing with that topics on international level.
12:57Actually, there are regulations in place already from the European Aviation Safety Agency and all member states started to implement
13:06those regulations. So, actually, they should be harmonized within Europe, actually.
13:11Of course, there are some specialities in each country. But basically, the setup is here. You have to fulfill the
13:18requirements. It's a lot of work to do that. You have to get, at the end also, if you want
13:22to fly to densely populated areas, for example, kind of a certification of the aircraft and your process.
13:28And all together has to be a good package, which the authority needs to check. And then you get permission
13:36for that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, please.
13:40Hi. Nice to see your project. Thanks. Sorry. I wanted to ask how high it flies? How high it flies?
13:50Actually, yeah, good question. So, actually, from a technology point of view, there is not so much the limitation.
13:57It's more regulatory issue again. We try to stay out of commercial air traffic. So, we are below that. But
14:05we also have to make sure that we are high enough obstacles. So, it's roughly about 100 to 150 meters
14:12above the highest obstacle.
14:14Okay. Do you make shimas where you can fly? Sorry? Again?
14:20You make shimas, like, plans where you have the right to fly?
14:26Actually, that's part of the regulation. You have to get permission. And you also have to get permission for this
14:32route, what you want to fly.
14:34Yeah. So, and we have to make sure that the ground risk and air risk is considered.
14:37Correct. Okay. We've got to stop it there. Ladies and gentlemen, Apalion. Thank you. Thank you very much.
14:42All right. Good. Thank you.
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