China engineers designing “biggest civilian drone” for courier companies

BEIJING - Chinese engineers soon will have a world-record-holding product to offer to express delivery companies - the largest civilian drone. Engineers at Beihang Unmanned Aircraft System Technology, a part of Beihang University in Beijing, are designing a drone that will be able to fly 1,500 km carrying one metric tonne of cargo.

They plan to finalise their design before year's end and construct a prototype in 2019 for test flights scheduled to start in 2020.

Mass production will begin if test flights are successful, and a drone-based delivery network is expected to take shape around 2025, said Zhang Shuo, chief designer at the Beihang technology company, in an interview with China Daily.  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).