The assembly of AT200 cargo drone began on a serial basis in China. Representatives of the Star UAV System company, who developed the novelty, shared the details. The AT200 unmanned aerial vehicle was successfully tested and is ready for shipping worldwide. The product kit includes a special mobile unit to control the drone.
The AT200 model is based on the platform of a single-engine turboprop aircraft from New Zealand, P-750 XSTOL, which has 9 seats. The maximum take-off weight of the Chinese novelty is 3.4 tons. The drone can carry up to 1.5 tons of cargo. It can fly at distances up to 2,200 kilometers at an altitude of 6.1 kilometers and the speed of up to 313 kilometers per hour.
The drone needs a strip of 200 meters to take off. This significantly expands the geography of its operation. Not surprisingly, the commanders of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are already interested in developing it. At the same time, one of the largest courier companies in China, SF Express, is the customer of the project. According to the contract, it will be provided with three such devices till the end of the current year. A representative of the Star UAV System company has reported that they have an order for the production of fifty more AT200 drones by 2022.
It has not been two years since the first development test, and the mass production of drones has already been approved. The first time AT200 took off was at the end of 2017. The drone coped well with the flight, carrying the cargo on board at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters with significant wind. The flight and unloading of the drone took a total of 4.5 hours.
