Destinus hasn’t been around for long. Russian-born Mijhail Kokorich founded the start-up in Switzerland. Now the entrepreneur made headlines. He has already been able to collect around 29 million US dollars from venture capitalists with his company. The reason for this: its concept. Because Kokorich wants to build a hypersonic aircraft with hydrogen propulsion. It could revolutionize logistics – also for corporations like Amazon.
Amazon: Worldwide delivery in just 12 hours?
During flight, the engines of Destinus’ planned cargo drone will use the surrounding air as part of the fuel. The principle of the “breathing” engine is not new in itself, but Kokorich wants to implement it in the most efficient way possible. So far, lasers, for example, have been supposed to heat the surrounding air to reduce resistance during flight. Destinus wants to avoid such methods. The first prototype of the unmanned aircraft should break the sound barrier by the end of the year. But how could Amazon, for example, benefit from the concept?
Well, currently the delivery times for worldwide air freight are 24 to 72 hours. That means: If you order a product from Amazon from the USA, for example, there are sometimes considerable waiting times. The same goes for services like Alibaba. With the Destinus drone, the times should shrink to just six to 12 hours. So far, Amazon has not officially announced any plans to take advantage of the technology.
completed maiden flight
Kokorich himself is well known in the space sector. In the past he has helped found Dauria Aerospace, Astro Digital, Helios Wire and Momentus Space. The latter was an American project by the entrepreneur. As a Russian citizen in the United States, however, he encountered problems with the US Department of Defense with him. The entrepreneur first sold his shares in Momentus Space and then founded his new start-up in Switzerland.
The young company can already celebrate its first successes. The Jungfrau prototype has already completed its maiden flight. In late 2020, Destinus posted a video of the project on Twitter.
Hypersonic passenger transport
“In fact, we can transport things from here to another continent cheaper than normal planes. That sounds strange, but it isn’t; we simply use less energy for it.”
Mikhail Kokorich (via Stern)
In the future, however, the technology could not only benefit freight transport for Amazon and Co. Even passenger transport at hypersonic speeds can be implemented without any problems with a further developed concept. The company writes about this and other fields of application of its drone on its website.
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Source: Destinus; Twitter/@hyperdestinus; star