Arabian Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMC) has agreed a deal with Sabrewing Aircraft to purchase 53 Rheagal-A VTOL Air Cargo Drones following the “Alpha” aircraft’s first world record breaking flight.
In September 2022, Sabrewing announced that it had flown its first flight with a record breaking 829 pound/374kg payload, believed to be the most for any commercial cargo UAV.
According to ADMC, it has placed 128 orders for Sabrewing’s Rhaegal-B “Bravo” aircraft, that is capable of lifting 5,400 pounds/2,450kg vertically and up to 10,000 pounds/4535kg conventionally. The “Alpha” and “Bravo” models are said to be the only cargo UAV capable of taking off both vertically and conventionally.
Ed De Reyes, CEO of Sabrewing, said: “We had a phenomenal response to our first flight announcement. We are meeting our customers’ requests of carrying large volumes
of cargo while lifting heavy payloads of weight. Because we already have the moulds, hardware, software and avionics from our first aircraft, we’ve completed the majority of the development work on the Alpha model aircraft. We were looking for a launch customer to start production. ADMC found customers who were interested in buying and leasing the cargo UAV. We had an overwhelming response to our first flight, and interest skyrocketed from day one of the announcement.”
De Reyes continued: “On our very first flight, we carried a payload that beat the highest
planned payload capacity of the closest competitor by almost 500 pounds, and with over
four times more volume than the closest competitors. Since our first payload was only
about one-third of what we can carry, we knew it was going to attract a lot of customers
who have the need to carry a ton or more of cargo in a large cargo bay.”
Ayman Zeibak, General Manager of ADMC, added: “We are the first launch customer for
the Bravo aircraft, ordering 128 of Sabrewing’s Rhaegal-B Bravo aircraft valued at
over €768 million. We now have a mix of highly versatile aircraft to lease to our African
and Middle Eastern customers. The Sabrewing Alpha is just the right size for some of the smaller air cargo companies who don’t have contracts with FedEx, DHL or another major carrier, but have the need to carry 1000 kilos of bulk cargo to remote locations on a regular basis.”
The order represents an additional $260 million in revenue for Sabrewing, as well as the launch of an additional product line. Sabrewing expects to begin delivering the first Alpha models for type certification testing by the beginning of 2023.
