Overview
The impact of drones and its commercial applications is often being compared with the disruptive force of the IT revolution. Soon, clients in all areas of the economy will begin to see the impact of drones on their operational processes – from the way they inspect construction sites to the way they receive goods like parcels or blood supply.
The global market for commercial applications of drones (estimated at about EUR 1.9bn in 2016) will rise to as much as EUR 118bn by 2020. But the application of today’s drones is limited by a crucial weakness in technology: reach. Depending on the construction type, today’s comparable industry class electric drones cannot fly longer 2 hours. Short flight time is one key barrier for a widespread usage of drones, especially as the transport industry is dependent on longer distance flights.
At QLEX we developed the QLEX Creo – a winged drone that can take off and land vertically and achieve 4-5 hours of flight time. We achieved this breakthrough efficiency by completely rethinking the architecture, aerodynamics and propulsion systems of how drones can be built.
QLEX has been running for two years, but was a secret until now. We spent the last 24 months in stealth mode designing, prototyping and testing the Creo and forming a highly skilled and experienced team of leading experts and engineers and start up shaped business developers. We now established our company, the QLEX GmbH, to assess the technological feasibility and commercial potential of the Creo.
One key objective of this project is a record-breaking proof of concept by carrying out a delivery from German mainland to the remote island Helgoland and return in one non-stop flight. No competing solution is close of being capable of achieving this.