Wingcopter GmbH

About Wingcopter

Wingcopter is a German aerospace company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Weiterstadt (Hesse), which develops and manufactures industrial-grade unmanned eVTOL delivery drones and operates them as a service provider. The core product is the Wingcopter 198, an electric delivery aircraft with a patented tilt-rotor mechanism that enables a seamless transition between multicopter mode for vertical take-off and landing and fixed-wing mode for fast, quiet long-range flight. A proprietary winch mechanism allows payloads to be delivered without landing infrastructure. Manufacturing comprises composite components, incoming inspection of purchased parts, assembly and final assembly of the drones, as well as First Article Inspection prior to the start of production. The company flies BVLOS missions over long distances and delivers medical products, packages and food; customers and partners include ITOCHU, UNICEF, the Ministry of Health of Vanuatu and NHS Scotland (together with Skyports and Thales). In addition to manufacturing, Wingcopter offers Drone-Delivery-as-a-Service as well as surveying services and is currently undergoing type certification processes with JCAB (Japan) and the FAA (USA).

Site

Weiterstadt

Processes

Composite manufacturing (composite team, production of components), Assembly/final assembly of drones (production team, assembled parts, final products), Quality inspection / incoming inspection / First Article Inspection (FAI), Manufacturing of industrial-grade unmanned eVTOL delivery drones (Wingcopter 198), Drone-Delivery-as-a-Service / operator of drone delivery services, Patented tilt-rotor mechanism (VTOL + fixed-wing), Winch mechanism for payload delivery without landing infrastructure, BVLOS flights over long distances

Materials

Composite Manufacturing, Tilt-Rotor Mechanism, Winch Mechanism

Certificates

EN 9100/ISO 9001 (referenced as quality standards; certification not, ISO 9001 / EN 9100 (quality standards anchored in the process)

Founded

2017

Industries

Healthcare/Medical Care, Logistics, Disaster Relief/Humanitarian Aid, Security & Defence, Surveying, COVID-19 Test Logistics

1. 01

   Engineering & Design

2. 02

   Composite manufacturing of components

3. 03

   Incoming inspection of purchased parts

4. 04

   Assembly and final assembly of the drones

5. 05

   Quality inspection / First Article Inspection

6. 06

   Testing & Type Certification

7. 07

   Operation as a drone delivery service

Processes & Manufacturing Competencies

Locations

Weiterstadt

DE

Headquarters, manufacturing and quality inspection

Materials

Composite components

Products & Components

Inside the production

Processes & technical limits

Quality

A dedicated quality inspection team carries out incoming inspections, inspection of in-house and purchased parts, First Article Inspections (FAI) and 8D analyses in case of non-conformities; calibration lists, Supplier Approved Lists and quality standards in accordance with ISO 9001 and EN 9100 are maintained in the process.

History

1. 2017

   Founded by Tom Plümmer, Jonathan Hesselbarth and Ansgar Kadura

2. 2020

   Named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum; vaccine deliveries in Vanuatu with UNICEF, projects in Tanzania and Malawi

3. 2023

   Verification experiment with ITOCHU on the transport of blood products in Japan, the first of its kind in Japan

4. 2024

   Acceptance of the JCAB type certification process of the Wingcopter 198 in Japan (with ITOCHU); parallel FAA process in the USA; in August, freezing of the Bill of Materials (1,150 parts) after more than 4,000 flight hours