Matternet and Swiss Post to start payload trials with drones

Drone manufacturer Matternet is preparing to run payload drone trials with Swiss Post and Swiss WorldCargo. As previously reported, Matternet and Swiss Post tested the drone systems in the summer of 2015 – but these were drone-only trials.

Oliver Evans, head of global business development for Matternet, has been quoted by The Loadstar as saying that the payload trials are scheduled to take place within the next two months.

“The Swiss Civil Aviation Authority certified specific routes of 10-15km from Bellechasse, an airfield near Geneva used by private flyers, and we completed a number of missions without incident,” Evans was quoted as saying. “We’re now in the planning stage of repeating the exercise with real payloads of up to 1kg.”

Evans has close links with the Swiss aviation community: he was chief cargo officer at Swiss International Air Lines for 12 years before joining Matternet in 2015.