{"id":2101,"date":"2026-04-05T17:52:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T17:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:03:50","slug":"flying-robots-revolutionizes-aerial-logistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/?p=2101","title":{"rendered":"Flying Robots revolutionizes aerial logistics"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Fly like a boat! What a curious reference for a flying drone but it lies at the very heart of the Flying Robots project. \u201cWe\u2019ve introduced the principle of the foil into aviation,\u201d says Lo\u00efc Binard<\/span><\/span>, CEO of the startup, who is preparing, at the Sauvian airfield in H\u00e9rault, to launch an aircraft unlike any other, just as foils lift racing boats out of the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00ab\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The idea came from performances\u2014particularly pyrotechnic ones\u2014carried out under parachutes, which the team wanted to turn into drones and control remotely. But they realized that the machine\u2019s capabilities were exceptional and that it could carry heavy loads.\u00a0\u00bb \u2014 Lo\u00efc Binard<\/span><\/span>, CEO<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Flying-Robots<\/p>\n

Visually, it\u2019s a paramotor\u2014a motorized, bulbous pod with a carefully designed 4.5-meter tail\u2014suspended beneath a wing similar to that of a paraglider. Technically, it\u2019s an innovation protected by several patents.<\/p>\n

Light, fast and powerful<\/h2>\n

Drones are of interest to logistics operators for a thousand reasons: access to rugged or forested areas with no road or airport infrastructure; replacing costly helicopters or small planes for delivering heavy, medium, and large packages; bypassing urban congestion issues; and servicing dangerous zones, to name just a few. But, generally based on multi-rotor technology, they face a twofold challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00ab\u00a0They are complex\u2014and therefore expensive and heavy. If you\u2019re expensive, it\u2019s difficult to offer an economically viable solution; if you\u2019re heavy, your payload capacity is reduced.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cA soft wing,\u201d points out the engineer, a graduate of ESTACA<\/span><\/span>, \u201cis very light compared to a fixed wing or rotors, yet capable of supporting considerable weight. A 20-kg soft wing can carry 5 tonnes\u2014an unmatched ratio in aviation. As a true parachute, it also adds safety for the drone and its payload. By contrast, a paramotor is fairly slow, but ours can easily exceed 100 km\/h, which is perfectly acceptable for logistics, thanks to the architecture devised by the startup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pod, with its engine, is articulated and behaves like an aircraft beneath a flexible wing. That\u2019s what makes it unique and gives it unusual performance.<\/p>\n

In water, a foil lifts the boat (or holds it up) by generating a very large force over a small surface area, reducing drag and allowing it to reach high speeds. In the air, the same principle applied to its pod by Flying Robots reduces or increases lift, enabling strong downforce at low speeds during takeoff and landing. The 4.5 m version could carry 180 kg over 300 km, and the 7 m version 350 kg over the same distance, while consuming very little energy,\u201d insists Lo\u00efc Binard<\/span><\/span>. \u201cAnd at a cost per kg\/km two to three times lower.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of l’Herault<\/h2>\n

Born in the 2000s and logging 2,000 flight hours\u2014\u201ca few prototypes were sold and attracted strong military interest\u201d\u2014the Flying Robots project was put on hold when it couldn\u2019t move to the industrial stage. It was revived and redesigned three years ago thanks to the investment of Bertrand Vilmer<\/span><\/span> (a General in the French Air Force, former fighter pilot and test pilot). The H\u00e9rault region is now hosting the first flights of the new generation of aircraft.<\/p>\n

The wing and pod were designed in Mons-la-Trivalle<\/span><\/span>, in the highlands of the Biterrois area. The prototype was manufactured by a subcontractor, MCJ Conception a\u00e9ronautique<\/span><\/span>, based in the same small village. Flight tests of the new drone version are set to begin in the coming weeks in Sauvian<\/span><\/span>\u2014initially with a pilot on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, step by step, we\u2019ll replace the pilot\u2019s hands, feet, and brain as we move toward full drone operation. We still have about two years of work ahead before offering a commercial product,\u201d along with securing the necessary funding.<\/p>\n

Source: Midi Libre<\/span><\/span>, by Ollivier Le Ny<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Fly like a boat! What a curious reference for a flying drone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions\/2114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flying-robots.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}