Dronamics Black Swan to get Kawasaki engines in new ‘long-term’ partnership
Cargo drone developer Dronamics has formed a partnership with Kawasaki Motors to explore integrating the Japanese firm’s aero piston engine in its Black Swan Drone.
The collaboration will see both companies cooperate across engine development and testing, including R&D and integration engineering, flight testing and validation on Black Swan.
“Both us and Kawasaki Motors see this is a long-term relationship, with the engine development as the first step. It further strengthens our ties to Japanese industry, the carbon fibre for the Black Swan already originates from Japan,” Konstantin Rangelov, co-founder and chief technology officer, Dronamics tells us.
Rangelov does not rule out the possibility of an all Japanese-built Black Swan some day.
“Being an island nation, Japan understands the value of rapid and reliable logistics — the Black Swan could cover Japan within 9 hours or less from a single warehouse, creating enormous potential for enhanced connectivity within Japan and internationally,” he explains.
According to Rangelov, Kawasaki stood out as a partner due to a combination of factors: its aviation heritage, R&D capabilities and expertise in high-performance engines. He also says Kawasaki’s engineering culture aligns closely with Dronamics’ focus, making them an “ideal partner” for next-generation propulsion.
Dronamics has also been named among Kawasaki Motors’ strategic partners as part of its renewed focus on developing aviation propulsion systems.
A spokesperson for the Japanese engine maker tells us that the company can trace its roots back to Kawasaki Aircraft.
“After World War Two, the company entered the motorcycle business, which continues to this day,” said the spokesperson. “As part of its medium- to long-term growth strategy, Kawasaki Motors has decided to leverage its core strength—advanced engine technology—beyond its existing business domains, with the goal of achieving sustainable growth and contributing to society.
“To that end, the company is moving forward with its entry into the aircraft engine business,” they added.
Kawasaki Motors is also a strategic investor in VoltAero. It joined the French hybrid-electric aircraft developer’s Series B round in May 2023, investing an undisclosed sum.
The first phase of the Dronamics and Kawasaki partnership spans the next two years. Key milestones include finalising engine specifications, integrating the engine into the Black Swan platform, ground testing and preparing for initial flight tests, according to the companies.
Flight testing with the new engine is planned after the initial integration phase, with detailed timelines still being finalised as part of the project planning. “In the meantime, Dronamics continues to operate and test the current Black Swan configuration to validate performance,” added Rangelov.
The Black Swan is a carbon fibre, propeller driven aircraft that first flew in May 2023 and has since performed hundreds of flight tests. The fixed-wing aircraft offers a payload of 350kg (77 lbs) and a range of 2,500km (1,550miles). It has a wingspan of nearly 16m and 400m takeoff and landing requirement.
As of today, Black Swan is powered by a four-stroke Rotax engine, running on regular or synthetic fuel. A big piece of the partnership with Kawasaki is to explore more sustainable options such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or hydrogen propulsion.
“We expect new engines to optimise performance and operational efficiency — improve payload capacity, extend range, reduce emissions and enable compatibility with alternative fuels like SAF and hydrogen in the future,” says Rangelov.
The partnership did not happen overnight. Both companies were vetting each other for “some time” before the collaboration was announced, confirmed Dronamics.
At this early stage, it is not yet clear if Kawasaki will benefit financially from any future sales of Black Swan should its engines be integrated into the platform.
“The partnership is focused primarily on R&D and engine integration,” explains Rangelov. “As a strategic partner to Kawasaki Motors, Dronamics will be amongst the first with access to new technology, while Kawasaki gets access to our next-gen drone platform to validate the new aero engine.”
As a company that began in 2014 as a novelty R&D project because Rangelov wanted to find a way to enjoy the foods he missed from home whilst away studying aerospace engineering, partnering with a world-renowned engine maker is a full circle moment of sorts.
Today, Dronamics has hundreds of staff, a fleet of unmanned aircraft and customer partnerships already secured with the likes of Emirate Post group and Qatar Airways Cargo. Plus, if all goes well it will have a Japanese engine partner to add to the mix soon too.
Subscribe to our free newsletter
For more deep dives from SAF Investor, subscribe to our email newsletter.
