*This is a machine-translated text of the original article.

ANA Holdings Inc and Aeronext Inc announced that they had begun a business alliance to jointly develop delivery drones to cope with the “Industrial Revolution in the Air: Level 4” by integrating ANA’s knowledge of airline and airframe operation as a drone operator with Aeronext’s airframe structural design techniques to improve the basic performance of industrial drones.

*Latest drone prototype

Level 4 is the realization phase of “Non-visual flight without assistance in manned zone” targeting FY2022, which was specified in the “Roadmap 2019 Towards the Industrial Revolution in the Air” by the Public-Private Council for Environmental Improvement on Small Unmanned Vehicles announced in June 2019.

The two companies will jointly develop high-quality, secure, and safe drones that will be needed to deliver household goods and pharmaceuticals in regions where land transportation is difficult, and to deliver goods in regions including cities.

ANA provides knowledge from the operator’s perspective on major applications, basic airframe performance, functions required for aircraft maintenance and operation control, etc.

Meanwhile, Aeronext will provide 4D GRAVITY® technology to realize a high-performance delivery drone aircraft by designing an aircraft structure that can keep loads constantly level and considering the position of the center of gravity.

The two companies will begin demonstration tests using a delivery drone jointly developed in Fiscal Year 2020, and will begin mass production towards the air industry revolution level 4 in Fiscal Year 2022.

Original Text: https://ampmedia.jp/2020/05/20/ana-24/