Drone covers 20 kms in 30 minutes to deliver frozen food in Gurugram

New Delhi, July 25 Get ready to receive mouth-watering cuisines right in your balcony as homegrown drone startup Skye Air Mobility on Monday said that it has successfully delivered frozen food to Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods via its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that travelled an aerial distance of 20 kms in less than 30 minutes.

After receiving food at its Cloud kitchen outlets in Gurugram, Curefoods now looks at food deliveries to the customers in the near future.

The trials witnessed up to six flights per day, each carrying a payload of 5 kg in temperature-controlled boxes that maintained a negative 20-degree temperature to keep the frozen food fresh.

The deliveries of frozen food happened with a series of BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) trials from Curefoods warehouse in Jhundsari to the Curefoods Kitchen Outlet at Golf Course Road, Gurugram.

"This is indeed a first-of-its-kind initiative in the direction to utilise cutting-edge technology to deliver food. With the ongoing BVLOS trials, we anticipate gathering more data on route, flight, cost-economic viability in order to develop models for commercial flights to begin in the next few months," said Ankit Kumar, CEO, Skye Air Mobility.

Skye Air used its most reliable UAV, Skye Ship One, to facilitate real-time deliveries ensuring optimal flight safety and throughout temperature monitoring.

Skye Ship One is currently the most reliable delivery drone in India, having completed more than 1,200 flights.

"Starting with B2B pilot kitchen deliveries which ensure a larger quantity at a lesser cost, we will be looking at B2C food deliveries soon in the future," said Ankit Nagori, Founder, Curefoods.

Founded in 2020, Skye Air has successfully operated over 1500 flights so far.

Skye Air has been offering its expertise spanning different verticals such as healthcare supplies, agri-commodities, food and grocery delivery.