Podcast: Aeros dirigible platforms to serve as aerial drone hubs

Jeff Lee
Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts and it’s Friday, the thirtieth of August. At the end of July, my colleague Robert Luke went to the FAA Drone and Advanced Air Mobility Symposium to get the latest on efforts to integrate alternative forms of air transport into the national airspace. While there, Rob talked to Igor Pasternak, chief executive of Aeros, which is developing an airship platform for cargo. Take a listen.

Robert Luke
Hello, Igor. And thank you for joining us today.

Igor Pasternak
Pleasure, thank you.

Robert Luke
If you don’t mind, take a few minutes to kind of give us a little background about yourself and how you ended up being the chief executive of Edo Corporation and embarking on this journey to create this dirigible.

Igor Pasternak
Basically, I’m from Soviet Union, okay, Soviet Union. There was some when I was grow up, I was testing the kid. There was challenge when they discover oil and Siberia. The biggest challenge was become, how we can transport the cargo, the treatment, and one of the solutions, who find this airships and this was kind of fascinating for me as a kids, and it’s become kind of the journey to build a big airship.

Robert Luke
So that sounds like very interesting background and steps you’ve taken over the years to get to this point. Based on that, how far along? Have you progressed with it? And how much more do you see needing to be completed before you can finally say it’s operational?

Igor Pasternak
This very wide open question, because, from technology standpoint, it’s done, built, pre production vehicle. It’s all in one place. To become really commercial. It’s required creating of industry, one two tiers. It’s not creating the industry. It can be somewhere negative reaction, because, to show the potential, you need to have fleet. What we’re doing in this point, we’re concentrating on ability of building a lot of airships at same time, and a lot of them in hundreds any production. In this way, you can put the industry and demonstrate right away, in some way, it’s revolution in cargo logistics, how far away we are? We are working towards, working toward, I didn’t want to put some some terms, but we working toward to see this significant near future.

Robert Luke
Okay, and how much payload can the dirigible carry? And you know, and what’s its range?

Igor Pasternak
To give you an example, theoretically it’s unlimited, like airplane, you can build very, very big airplane. The problem is airplane, it’s not it’s run away. Why it cannot be build very big airplane, limitation on runway. One desires, because we are creating without relying on ground, nuclear structure and other kind of approach. They can pick up and drop cargo in our mode, without lending. What is mean directly, there’s no limits. From practicality standpoint, it’s we got two models. It’s one model, ml, 866, with a 66 ton, 66 ton of carbon capacity, this range of 3000 nautical miles, okay, and following by ML, 806, what is 250 ton? This range six of nautical miles. Okay, that is we look from cargo movement, yeah, I forgot to mention. And of course, we have smaller model. It’s about six ton. It’s called ml, 866, six ton. But what we’re trying to achieve is this family of airship is our complete cargo movement process. It’s in the way of let’s say 250 ton vehicle will be transpacific. Transatlantic vehicle. Again, when you’re talking about payload, what we need to understand is pure 250 ton. It’s not the volume way, because volume, we can talk about moving 250 tonne of freight plus 500 what is in relation this simply impossible. And after, let’s say, container your staff arrive in the port from airport or somewhere location in is becoming 66 tonne. What is becoming like? Connected between warehouses. We can move Pallets from one warehouse to another, and then when you have this smaller vehicle, six ton vehicle, what is flying? Flying fulfillment center. It’s last mile delivery, because combination with drones. But the important portion of this last mile is same day, last mile delivery, okay, if looking from transformational standpoint that is this approach is changing complete understanding of logistics, because you just talk about it’s not about airplanes, not about airports, right about such long runway and where the airports are located. Same about trucks. It’s not about trucks. We can build a truck, or can whatever the limit is freeway, set of rivers and it’s railroad, right? And same, of course, with ships, with the port and how deep the port is and how many ships it can take. This airship would not require of landing for cargo operation. You don’t have infrastructure anymore. You don’t have ground infrastructure. You you don’t have this limits on the cargo movement, establishment, infrastructure. Now you got vehicle, what can literally pick up anywhere, anything, can drop anywhere and anything. The way we’re going, we’re going on the market in we’re talking about national it’s wisdom truck laws. This is the operation, what we can see. And of course, the transcontinental operation is, what do I know is Freighter airplanes. So for seven, triple seven freighter, this what we look in. But again, the most important would be giving flexibility. And I can time. I can pick up the product from literally factory floor plan, and I can deliver the product directly to construction site, or I can become the consumer product from factory overseas, bring to United States and move the pallets between warehouses.

Robert Luke
Understood. So what is the actual average crude speed, cruise speed for your dirigibles right now?

Igor Pasternak
Yeah, it’s 100 not so it’s 120 have about 120 miles per hour.

Robert Luke
Okay, and what’s your actual cruising altitude?

Igor Pasternak
We operate on lower cruising altitude compared with airplanes. This airplane is going to high altitude to avoid resistance the truck themselves, the fuel for us because we naturally buoyant the flight times right there from beginning, already spending less energy than airplane for us, operational attitude can be as low as 3000 on cruise or as high as 12000.

Robert Luke
Gotcha. So will the drones be housed in the dirigible and then fly out and drop and deliver?

Igor Pasternak
Correct, drones, Imagine airship is the something of the house and simplify energy types are certified. It’s got the pilot. You can simply fly over the drone town of Los Angeles or Beverly Hills, nothing. You don’t have any restrictions. Imagine the drones located in this airship, and airship pick up the packages from one somewhere, very house outside of the city. Again, it’s large vehicle city. No more land for vehicle housing, local fulfillment center. Packages from fulfillment center flying 15, 20, miles. Parking, or hovering over the Pacific neighborhood and drones just flying up and down delivery packages

Robert Luke
So it’s kind of like an aerial fulfillment center, where they can come and pick up, drop off, bring more stuff that needs to go and get shipped out and so forth.

Igor Pasternak
Exactly. I think it’s very important, it really demonstrates commercial capability of the this type of airship and much more, how we can change complete way how we doing logistic business today.

Robert Luke
Well, I definitely thank you, Igor, for taking some time to sit down and give us a little bit more insight onto the aeros Corporation. We will definitely be in touch and try to keep track of your progress and how everything’s continue to develop. Thank you once again.

Igor Pasternak
Thank you for sharing.

Jeff Lee
That was Igor Pasternak, CEO of Aeros, speaking to my colleague, Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke at the FAA Drone and Advanced Air Mobility Symposium in Baltimore. And that’s all the time we have today. For more coverage of the freighter aircraft market, visit cargo facts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time.