{"id":6543,"date":"2023-06-30T18:22:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T18:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/?p=6543"},"modified":"2023-06-30T18:22:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T18:22:42","slug":"tiny-mighty-fly-is-preparing-to-leave-its-mark-on-the-global-drone-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/tiny-mighty-fly-is-preparing-to-leave-its-mark-on-the-global-drone-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Mighty Fly Is Preparing to Leave Its Mark on the Global Drone Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t-j37JZOoNo\" width=\"740\" height=\"415\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\nDrone companies come in all shapes and sizes, and so do the businesses and causes they serve.\u00a0 While major retailers like Amazon and Walmart with massive publicity departments continue to capture the media headlines \u2013 even while struggling to get their aerial package delivery operations off the ground \u2013 some smaller UAV companies, operating in out-of-the way locales with little public fanfare, are preparing to leave a huge mark on the global drone industry.<\/p>\n<p>A prime example is Mighty Fly, a San Francisco-based drone company first profiled <a href=\"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/in-the-spotlight-manal-habib-ceo-and-founder-of-the-drone-start-up-mighty-fly\/\">here <\/a>last March.\u00a0 The three-year-old start-up already enjoys the distinction of being one of the first and only woman-owned drone firms currently operating in the US \u2013 and indeed, anywhere in the world.\u00a0 Its co-founder CEO Manil Habib grew up with a powerful vision of what flight could do to serve mankind and has dedicated her life to making her vision come true.\u00a0 Since its founding in late 2021, the company has experienced an extraordinary \u2013 if largely unheralded \u2013 rise to prominence, attracting the attention of major new industry investors, while quietly marketing its state-of-the art autonomous drone delivery services to businesses and governments alike.<\/p>\n<p>Part of Mighty Fly\u2019s cachet is its exclusive focus on autonomous \u201cmiddle mile\u201d heavy cargo eVTOL aircraft that can fly continuously over long distances without the need for recharging.\u00a0 The company\u2019s first prototype, the Cento, with a payload of 100 pounds and a flight range of 600 miles, earlier this year received a special air-worthiness certificate from the FAA (followed by a COA, allowing for advanced flight testing). \u00a0Rather than rest on its laurels, the company quickly moved to develop a second-generation version of the Centro, and more recently, a third generation prototype, with a much larger payload (500 pounds) and a flight range exceeding thousand miles.\u00a0 While a number of major European players are also preparing to enter the long-distance drone cargo market, with even larger aircraft, Mighty Fly\u2019s three drones could well come to dominate an important niche at the lower end of the scale.<\/p>\n<p>Mighty Fly\u2019s rapid prototype development capability and its demonstrated safety qualifications have already attracted the attention of some major new investors \u2014 most recently, the electronics giant Mitsubishi, which has tapped Mighty Fly as one of a dozen UAV companies that the Japanese company will now support as part of its own European-wide drone \u201chub\u201d development strategy.\u00a0 Mighty Fly was the only US drone company selected, and one of only two start-ups, an indication of the high regard with which the firm, despite its relative youth, is already held, especially abroad.<\/p>\n<p>A good part of Mighty Fly\u2019s success to date is due to the extraordinary technology design team that Habib and her co-founder Scott Parker have recruited to the firm from the beginning, giving the company a decided edge over larger and more established firms.\u00a0 Habib and Parker met while working together at another innovative drone start-up (Zipline) and have created a unique synergy that allows Mighty Fly to race forward at record speed.\u00a0 The company now boasts an international design and engineering team of 12, up from its original 5, but it remains a small and highly agile company compared to many of its better known competitors.<\/p>\n<p>Mighty Fly\u2019s edge in innovation isn\u2019t just limited to its aircraft. Habib is also keenly aware of the challenges many businesses now face in their logistics, especially since COVID, with persistent bottlenecks that disrupt their supply chains. Early on, she and Parler looked for ways to make cargo drone delivery operations faster, smoother, more efficient and ultimately, more profitable. Their efforts resulted in the design of an automated conveyor belt system that allows for completely autonomous loading and unloading of drone cargo, obviating the need for human intervention by shippers or receivers.\u00a0 It\u2019s another business-friendly design element that gives Mighty Fly a decided edge over its competitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe traditional hub-and-spoke distribution model can still serve businesses that have centralized warehousing and shipping systems in place and that have experienced few logistics issues,\u201d Habib said recently.\u00a0 \u201cBut if there is one lesson we\u2019ve learned from supply chain bottlenecks and logistics over the past few years, it\u2019s that we need flexibility \u2013 to be able to adapt to various cargo volumes and expedited timing or urgencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mighty Fly\u2019s latest breakthrough is the announcement last week that its third-generation drone will receive a formal public demonstration in Michigan later this year as part of the state\u2019s recently unveiled and highly-touted Future Mobility and Electrification Program (FMEP).\u00a0 Michigan\u2019s automotive, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries are operating on a \u201cjust-in-time, as needed\u201d delivery schedule that demands a high level of speed and efficiency but officials say their current road vehicle and point-to-point air delivery systems are having trouble keeping up.\u00a0 The state is excited about Mighty Fly\u2019s capabilities, including its automated loading system, and has provided the company with seed money to make an unprecedented public exhibition that could lead to a long-term statewide government contract for the firm, while opening the door to major new commercial opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The coming year should be a big one for Mighty Fly.\u00a0 The firm has ambitions of becoming a major player not only in Europe but also in Australia and with Mitsubisi\u2019s backing, in Japan and Singapore.\u00a0 More FAA certifications are likely forthcoming, with more requests for public flight demonstrations.\u00a0 As word of mouth spreads, more investors will likely be banging on the company\u2019s door, too.\u00a0 Coming up on just its 4th year in existence, this extraordinary little start-up with a declared mission to \u201crevolutionize logistics\u201d is preparing to take the drone industry by storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff Drone companies come in all shapes and sizes, and so do the businesses and causes they serve.\u00a0 While major retailers like Amazon and Walmart with massive publicity departments continue to capture the media headlines \u2013 even while struggling to get their aerial package delivery operations off the ground \u2013 some smaller UAV companies, operating&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/tiny-mighty-fly-is-preparing-to-leave-its-mark-on-the-global-drone-industry\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}