Comment: The Past, Present, and Future for Air Cargo

But to the designers and manufacturers of aeroplanes, the goal was always around designing and building planes primarily and almost exclusively for the purpose of transporting people. 

Even today, the vast majority of “cargo planes” operating in the world’s skies are modified versions of passenger planes.

In fact, it was not until World War II that any serious attempts were made to design and manufacture planes that were conceived for the sole and exclusive purpose of transporting freight or cargo. 

Not surprisingly it was the Germans who designed one of the first purpose-built cargo planes. The Arado AR 232, which first took flight in 1941, is often claimed to be the world’s first plane designed and built exclusively for carrying cargo, not passengers. 

It had a number of features that became popular on freight aircraft in the years that followed, including a box-like fuselage slung beneath a high wing, a rear-loading ramp and a high mounted twin tail to allow easy access to the cargo hold. 

After the war, both civilian and military aircraft designers began to look more closely at creating planes that had very specific non-passenger purposes. Right through to the 1970s a number of aircraft were created that had the sole purpose of shipping things, not people around the globe. 

Today, iconic aircraft such as the Soviet designed Antonov An-225 remain among the few examples flying of planes that were never intended to carry passengers. 

But what of the future? Many in the industry see the future of cargo planes laying with UAVs. And they are right.

In fact, on a very chilly night in December 2021, an entirely new aircraft was revealed to the world on the runway of Sofia Airport in Bulgaria. One conceived from the very beginning to never ever carry people, not even a pilot. 

The Black Swan, by Dronamics, is a new generation of UAV built entirely for one purpose and one purpose only – the carrying of cargo. 

Rumour has it the aircraft’s original genesis began when one of the two brothers who founded the company laid a couple of pallets on a warehouse floor and said “let’s build a plane around that!” 

They have most certainly achieved that goal, for the Black Swan can comfortably carry up to 350 kilograms of cargo for a distance of approximately 2,500 kilometres. 

It is not just another cargo plane, however, for the aircraft has also been designed to be the most fuel-efficient cargo plane ever built. Despite being painted black, it is a very, very green plane indeed. By 2023, it will fly on bioethanol, making it fully carbon neutral. 

Australia is set to become one of the first few countries in which a fleet of Blacks Swans will operate from droneports around the nation. 

Being such a large country, with vast distances to travel, the Black Swan is the perfect aircraft to deliver “the speed of air freight at the cost of road freight”, which remains Dronamics’ core promise to its customers. 

For mining companies in remote regions requiring spare parts to be urgently shipped to them; for regional suppliers wishing to deliver fresh produce into major cities and for time-sensitive medical supplies needed all over the country, a future offering a network of Black Swans can’t come soon enough. 

The Black Swan is currently undergoing testing and certification in Europe. It is projected to begin certification and testing in Australia later in 2022, before being granted approval to fly by CASA. 

It is perhaps ironic that two brothers began the story of aviation in this world and now two other brothers will take the story of cargo aviation well into the next century.