UPS agrees to buy electric vertical aircraft to speed up package delivery in small markets
Published Wed, Apr 7 20218:00 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Apr 7 20219:15 AM EDT Frank Holland@in/frank-holland-b9657883/@FrankCNBCKey Points
- United Parcel Service announced it has agreed to purchase of 10 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from Beta Technologies.
- The package delivery giant will test the eVTOLs for use in its Express Air delivery network, focusing on small and medium markets.
- “You can see a future where it’s carrying, let’s say 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds to rural hospitals,” and landing on a helipad instead of an airport, UPS’ Bala Ganesh said.
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watch nowVIDEO02:47UPS buys electric vertical aircraft to speed up package delivery
United Parcel Service is taking package delivery to new heights, literally, with the purchase of 10 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from Beta Technologies.
In an announcement Wednesday, Atlanta-based UPS said it will test the eVTOLs for use in its Express Air delivery network, focusing on small and medium markets. The company will operate the eVTOLs under its Flight Forward division, which is also exploring drone delivery.
The new type of aircraft, which looks like a cross between a plane and a helicopter, “unlocks new business models that don’t exist today,” Bala Ganesh, vice president of the UPS Advanced Technology Group, told CNBC. “For example, you can see a future where it’s carrying, let’s say 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds to rural hospitals,” and landing on a helipad instead of an airport.
Vermont-based Beta Technologies will design and build the eVTOLs, which are set to be delivered to UPS in 2024, pending certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Beta will also provide landing pads and rechargeable batteries. UPS holds an option to purchase up to 150 more eVTOLs. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The eVTOLs can fly up to 250 miles at 170 mph on a single charge.
“We’ve also thought about for some urgent moments, like for example bypass New York traffic, and then move it into directly to our 43rd Street building so that we can get around congestion,” Ganesh said. “It’s not going be a fit for all the packages but for certain use cases: Willingness to pay, and urgency, we could potentially think about going into those areas.”
The eVTOLs would be used similarly to small fixed-wing aircraft that have a capacity of 500 to 3,000 pounds. UPS said it initially plans to use them in smaller markets and create a series of short routes or one long route to meet customer needs. The eVTOLs will have an operation advantage over small planes, according to Ganesh, because they’re designed to accommodate shipping containers, which allow for faster movement of packages in many cases.
“The smaller aircraft typically are not containerized. They don’t have any kind of container, so it’s loading a package into these aircraft, then its lands, and then has to be unloaded loaded into a truck or another vehicle and then driven to another location, resorted again, reloaded into the package car that delivers it, ” Ganesh said.
United Parcel Service is taking package delivery to new heights, literally, with the purchase of 10 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from Beta Technologies.
In an announcement Wednesday, Atlanta-based UPS said it will test the eVTOLs for use in its Express Air delivery network, focusing on small and medium markets. The company will operate the eVTOLs under its Flight Forward division, which is also exploring drone delivery.
The new type of aircraft, which looks like a cross between a plane and a helicopter, “unlocks new business models that don’t exist today,” Bala Ganesh, vice president of the UPS Advanced Technology Group, told CNBC. “For example, you can see a future where it’s carrying, let’s say 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds to rural hospitals,” and landing on a helipad instead of an airport.
Vermont-based Beta Technologies will design and build the eVTOLs, which are set to be delivered to UPS in 2024, pending certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Beta will also provide landing pads and rechargeable batteries. UPS holds an option to purchase up to 150 more eVTOLs. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The eVTOLs can fly up to 250 miles at 170 mph on a single charge.
“We’ve also thought about for some urgent moments, like for example bypass New York traffic, and then move it into directly to our 43rd Street building so that we can get around congestion,” Ganesh said. “It’s not going be a fit for all the packages but for certain use cases: Willingness to pay, and urgency, we could potentially think about going into those areas.”
The eVTOLs would be used similarly to small fixed-wing aircraft that have a capacity of 500 to 3,000 pounds. UPS said it initially plans to use them in smaller markets and create a series of short routes or one long route to meet customer needs. The eVTOLs will have an operation advantage over small planes, according to Ganesh, because they’re designed to accommodate shipping containers, which allow for faster movement of packages in many cases.
“The smaller aircraft typically are not containerized. They don’t have any kind of container, so it’s loading a package into these aircraft, then its lands, and then has to be unloaded loaded into a truck or another vehicle and then driven to another location, resorted again, reloaded into the package car that delivers it, ” Ganesh said.
UPS AircraftSource: UPS
Beta Technologies founder Kyle Clark said his team has worked with UPS to help transform how the company handles moving packages.
“We’re combining simple, elegant design and advanced technology to create a reliable aircraft with zero operational emissions that will revolutionize how cargo moves,” Clark said in a statement. “By utilizing vertical takeoffs and landings, we can turn relatively small spaces at existing UPS facilities into a micro air feeder network without the noise or operating emissions of traditional aircraft.”
Sustainability has become increasingly important since Carol Tome became CEO of UPS last June. In its 2020 annual report, UPS said its goal is to reduce greenhouse gases from its ground business by 12% and source 25% of its electric needs from renewable sources by 2025.
UPS announced in January 2020 a commitment to purchase up to 10,000 electric vehicles from Arrival Group, which is headquartered in London and Charlotte, North Carolina. The eVTOL batteries will also be compatible with those vehicles. Even when the batteries’ first life cycle in the aircraft ends, they can still be used in the EVs.
“It just creates easier operating models, which just makes things easier to deploy and manage as we move forward,” said Ganesh, “creating newer ways of handling which gives us more flexibility and optimally, reduces our costs.”
PS and its UPS Flight Forward subsidiary will purchase up to 150 eVTOL aircraft from Vermont-based Beta Technologies, the companies announced this week.
UPS plans to use the piloted eVTOL aircraft transport time-sensitive deliveries that would otherwise fly on small conventional airplanes. Rather than relying on airports, the fully electric aircraft will take off and land on-property at UPS facilities, creating a “micro air feeder network without the noise or operating emissions of traditional aircraft,” according to Beta founder and CEO Kyle Clark.
The aircraft will have a range of 250 miles (around 400 kilometers), a cruising speed of up to 170 mph (270 km/h), and a cargo capacity of 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms). UPS expects its new fleet to benefit healthcare providers, small and medium-sized businesses, and other companies in smaller communities, with the aircraft flying either one long route or a series of short routes on a single charge to meet customers’ needs.
“These new aircraft will create operational efficiencies in our business, open possibilities for new services, and serve as a foundation for future solutions to reduce the emissions profile of our air and ground operation,” UPS chief information and engineering officer Juan Perez stated in a press release.
UPS expects to take delivery of its first 10 aircraft from Beta starting in 2024, with an option to purchase as many as 150. UPS will also be using Beta’s proprietary modular charging stations, which will rapidly recharge the aircraft in less than an hour, leveraging used aircraft batteries that are no longer optimal for flight. UPS also expects to use the charging stations for its growing fleet of electric ground vehicles.
The contract with UPS represents a third major win for Beta as it pushes into the cargo and cargo-adjacent markets. The eVTOL developer’s launch customer is United Therapeutics, which plans to use its aircraft to carry human organs for transplant. Beta also has significant contracts with the U.S. Air Force through the latter’s Agility Prime program, which could lead to use of its aircraft for military logistics applications.
Beta has been steadily advancing flight testing of its full-scale Alia-250 prototype, a lift-plus-cruise design that uses four lifting propellers for vertical take-offs and landings, and a rear-mounted pusher propeller for cruise. For its initial phase of testing, the aircraft has been flying in airplane mode with its lifting propellers removed, including during its first interstate flight on March 17 between its testing ground in Plattsburgh, New York, and Beta headquarters in Burlington, Vermont.
The aircraft has attained altitudes up to 8,000 feet and a personal best in range that has not been disclosed, although publicly available flight tracking data indicates it has flown an actual distance of more than 100 miles (160 km) in a single flight. Hover testing will come next as the company works toward completing full transitions from vertical to forward flight and back. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DfHyNmwzCdY?feature=oembed
Although Beta’s eVTOL design has an onboard pilot to facilitate near-term certification, the company expects its aircraft to someday fly autonomously as technologies and regulations are established. UPS Flight Forward in 2019 became the first drone operator to achieve part 135 standard air carrier certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and is operating daily revenue-generating flights with drones.
According to UPS, the FAA certification enables UPS Flight Forward to fly payloads of up to 7,500 lb. (3,400 kg) either with an operator or autonomously.
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