Cheap drones made every vehicle on a supply route a target. The trucks still have to run, the crews still need water, batteries and ammunition, and someone still has to carry it forward. Meganeura Labs is building the aircraft that does that job instead of a person or a truck.
Armies spent a century making the supply vehicle tougher. Ukraine showed that toughness is not the answer when a drone costing a few hundred dollars can find and kill anything that moves on a road. The response so far has been ground robots, which are slower than a person walking and follow the same predictable paths.
Water, ammunition, batteries and casualty supplies still weigh what they weigh. When the vehicle cannot go, it moves on somebody's back.
They work, and they cost millions to buy, thousands an hour to fly, and a trained crew you cannot risk on a routine run.
The drones that changed the war carry a few kilograms. The resupply problem is measured in tens and hundreds.
Wildfire crews on a ridgeline, a northern community between winter roads, a drill camp past the end of the road. Same problem, no war required.
Meganeura Labs is building an electric heavy-lift cargo aircraft in Calgary. A coaxial design, simple where it moves and clever where it computes, meant to cost little enough that it can be sent where a crew cannot be risked. We are in detailed design and heading for bench testing. We will publish numbers when we have measured them.
Ammunition, water, batteries and medical supplies moved forward without a vehicle and a crew on a watched road.
Hose, pumps, fuel and food to crews on ridgelines and camps a truck cannot reach.
Food, parts and medicine into communities and camps that wait months for a winter road.
Tools and parts to towers, well sites and rights of way where the access road is the expensive part.
Drill camps, planting crews and survey teams supplied from the nearest staging area, not the nearest road.
Cut-off communities after floods and fires, when the roads are gone and every helicopter is committed.
Operators, primes, programme officers and partners. Tell us what needs carrying, how far, and how often.
Meganeura