Skye Air uses cargo drones for frozen food delivery trials in Delhi

Skye Air Mobility has collaborated with Curefoods, a cloud kitchen startup founded by Cult.fit co-founder and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori in 2020, to deliver frozen food in specially built temperature-controlled packaging via drones. From July 25 to July 31, a series of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) trials will be conducted, carrying about 5 kilos of frozen food per flight, covering a road distance of about 30 km from Curefoods’ warehouse in Jhund Sarai to the Curefoods kitchen outlet on Golf Course Road in Gurgaon, near Delhi. During the trials, the drone will complete an aerial distance of 20 km in less than 30 minutes. Once the drone is deployed for commercial use, Skye Air plans to carry about 50 kilos of frozen food in a single flight. “During the pilot, we are deploying drones that will complete around 8 trips daily and carry close to 40 kilos on average. In the future, when we consider how we might scale this, we will send out a drone to carry the payload of 50 kilos. Because this food is frozen, we are keeping the temperature at minus 20 degrees during the flight, and making sure that the food’s quality does not degrade during the journey. Another essential component of this project is giving the client feedback in real-time,” said Ankit Kumar, CEO, Skye Air Mobility in a statement.