Jan. 12 (NBD) -- The AT200, the heaviest cargo drone in the world, is registered under real names Wednesday with the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The drone completed its maiden flight in last October at Neifu Airport in Pucheng, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. At present, its manufacturers are working hard to secure a  airworthiness certificate for the drone, which is said will lay a foundation for the product's mass production and commercial operation.  

The drone can cruise at 313km/h with a battery life of 8 hours. It has a maximum take-off weight of around 3.4 tonnes and a payload of 1.5 tonnes. 

Photo/VCG

It is co-developed by the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Star Uas Co., Ltd., and Northwestern Polytechnical University.   

As the world's first cargo drone with a payload of over 1 tonne, the AT200 would exert a big impact on the logistic industry in the future.

NBD noticed that delivery company SF Express (SF) holds a 29.7 percent stake in Star Uas Co., Ltd, according to the former's semi-annual report of 2017.

Star Uas Co., Ltd. was set up on November 23, 2015, born with a mission to produce two heavy-duty cargo drones specially for SF.

SF' truck fleet can ensure a fast delivery for customers in the first- and second-tier Chinese cities. However, for people living in remote areas, the delivery usually costs a lot but comes with low efficiency.

Wang Wei, chairman and founder of SF, also attended the AT200 maiden flight ceremony last October. This showed he attached great importance to the drone. 

Actually, he has put forward the concept of drone delivery as early as 2012 and started drone delivery trial in 2013.

SF obtained the country's first airspace approval for delivery drones on June 21, 2017, and carried out field operations several days later. Since then, SF delivery drones started to offer delivery services in real life.

On July 13, 2017, SF announced the plan to base its delivery drone headquarter at the Shuangliu sub-zone of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone in Southwest China's Sichuan province, where the company plans to build a delivery drone network.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn