Avy Aera 1 is the first generation of Avy's so-called eVTOL UAVs (bear with me: Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Being the first of its kind, it paved the way for future drones to come ever since its introduction. Avy Aera was specifically designed for a range of "for-good" applications, such as transporting medical goods, surveilling wildlife parks and performing search-and-rescue missions. In service however, it has proven to be capable of of much more: Avy Aera 1 has been used for wildfire detection, supporting emergency services during traffic incidents and fires and transporting medical goods in several European and African countries — its applications are numerous.
Avy Aera 1 flies fully autonomously and since it does not rely on a runway, it is perfectly fit to perform missions in environments that were previously inaccessible, such as cities and inhospitable remote locations. It has a flexible payload bay that offers space for a multitude of payload types, ranging from medical containers to a variety of camera types.
It is Avy's first commercially available aircraft to be produced in series and it has served as Avy's flagship aircraft until the introduction of its successor: Avy Aera 3.
As Head of Design, I was responsible for the overall design of Avy Aera 1. This included formulating a product vision, researching available technology and collecting market needs — then combining these into requirements to be used in concept development. Beyond the conceptual design of the product, I have been closely involved with engineering, materialization and production. I was also responsible for the technical development of several sub-systems, such as the payload bay and module. This included conceptual design, engineering, CAD modeling, materialization and making it ready for series production.
Avy Aera 1 was developed with a very small team with expertise in aeronautics, mechanical engineering and production within a fast-paced startup environment.
