{"id":"9318fc41-6011-427d-b1a0-529ecf668815","companyId":"670c2ad9-680c-4a06-a695-7a6d51e3d2fa","modelName":"Wingcopter 198","slug":"wingcopter-198","description":"Wingcopter, founded in 2017 in Darmstadt, Germany by Tom Pluemmer, Jonathan Hesselbarth, and Ansgar Kadura, makes the Wingcopter 198, a fixed-wing tilt-rotor electric vertical-takeoff delivery drone aimed at medical and logistics delivery in Africa and other remote regions. It carries up to five kilograms across up to three drop sites, ranges up to seventy-five kilometers at up to 150 kilometers per hour, and lets one operator monitor as many as ten aircraft, on roughly 110 million dollars of total funding including a 40-million-euro European Investment Bank investment in 2023 and a Series B closed in June 2025. The registry records it at pilot, leaning early-commercial, maturity: it holds beyond-visual-line-of-sight permissions in Germany and other European regions and ran real BVLOS medical deliveries in Malawi, but at humanitarian-project scale, while its flagship plan to deploy twelve thousand drones across forty-nine African countries is a multi-year target rather than realized volume, its revenue is very low at an aggregator-estimated 1.73 million dollars in 2024, and its US, Brazil, and Japan type certifications are in progress rather than granted, with no FAA BVLOS authorization. A correction worth recording: the storyline of a German delivery-drone startup struggling financially into insolvency belongs to Volocopter, which filed for insolvency in December 2024, not to Wingcopter, whose risk signal is thin revenue and repeated capital raises rather than a filed insolvency.","formFactor":"aerial","maturityStage":"pilot","lifecycleState":"active","supersededByModelId":null,"specs":{"notes":[{"label":"Verified","value":"Wingcopter (founded 2017, Darmstadt Germany; founders Tom Pluemmer (CEO), Jonathan Hesselbarth, Ansgar Kadura) makes the Wingcopter 198 delivery drone, focused on medical/logistics delivery in Africa/remote areas. Holds BVLOS permissions in Germany + other European regions; ran real BVLOS medical deliveries in Malawi (70 BVLOS flights). ~$110M raised (EIB EUR 40M May 2023)."},{"label":"Maturity = pilot / early-commercial","value":"Real BVLOS deployments exist but at humanitarian-project scale; the flagship 12,000-drone Africa plan is a multi-year TARGET not realized volume; very low revenue (~$1.73M 2024, aggregator estimate) + dependence on EIB + secondary funding indicate it has not reached self-sustaining commercial scale. US/Brazil/Japan type certification in progress, NOT granted; no FAA BVLOS."},{"label":"CORRECTION (not insolvent)","value":"The 'German drone startup financial struggles / insolvency' storyline is VOLOCOPTER (a different firm, filed insolvency Dec 2024), NOT Wingcopter. Wingcopter's risk signal is thin revenue + repeated capital raises, not a filed insolvency. Do not conflate."},{"label":"Claimed but NOT verified","value":"12,000 drones across 49 African countries (a 5-year plan, not deployed volume); US/Brazil/Japan type cert (in progress only); large-scale recurring commercial delivery revenue; $1.73M 2024 revenue is a third-party aggregator (CB Insights) estimate."}],"specs":"Wingcopter 198: fixed-wing tilt-rotor eVTOL delivery drone; payload up to 5 kg (triple-drop, up to 3 packages); range up to 75 km; max speed 150 km/h; one operator can monitor up to 10 aircraft. ~$110M total funding (EIB, REWE, ITOCHU, DRONE FUND). Series B closed Jun 27 2025.","formFactor":"aerial (fixed-wing tilt-rotor eVTOL delivery drone; medical/logistics)"},"manufacturerSerial":null,"reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingcopter","title":"Wingcopter (founded 2017, Darmstadt; Wingcopter 198 delivery eVTOL; 5 kg / 75 km)","sourceName":"Wikipedia"},{"url":"https://dronelife.com/2025/06/30/wingcopter-secures-new-funding-and-strengthens-leadership-team/","title":"Wingcopter Series B (Jun 2025; funds for mass production + US/Brazil/Japan type cert)","sourceName":"DroneLife"},{"url":"https://www.therobotreport.com/wingcopter-brings-in-42m-for-delivery-drones/","title":"Wingcopter raises $42M for delivery drones","sourceName":"The Robot Report"},{"url":"https://dronenews.africa/wingcopter-in-malawi-to-stay/","title":"Wingcopter BVLOS medical deliveries in Malawi","sourceName":"DroneNews.Africa"}],"aliases":["Wingcopter 198","Wingcopter"],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"manufacturerTermForTeleop":null,"createdAt":"2026-06-03T20:35:52.361Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-03T20:35:52.361Z","jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Product","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/models/wingcopter-198","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/models/wingcopter-198","name":"Wingcopter 198","alternateName":["Wingcopter 198","Wingcopter"],"description":"Wingcopter, founded in 2017 in Darmstadt, Germany by Tom Pluemmer, Jonathan Hesselbarth, and Ansgar Kadura, makes the Wingcopter 198, a fixed-wing tilt-rotor electric vertical-takeoff delivery drone aimed at medical and logistics delivery in Africa and other remote regions. It carries up to five kilograms across up to three drop sites, ranges up to seventy-five kilometers at up to 150 kilometers per hour, and lets one operator monitor as many as ten aircraft, on roughly 110 million dollars of total funding including a 40-million-euro European Investment Bank investment in 2023 and a Series B closed in June 2025. The registry records it at pilot, leaning early-commercial, maturity: it holds beyond-visual-line-of-sight permissions in Germany and other European regions and ran real BVLOS medical deliveries in Malawi, but at humanitarian-project scale, while its flagship plan to deploy twelve thousand drones across forty-nine African countries is a multi-year target rather than realized volume, its revenue is very low at an aggregator-estimated 1.73 million dollars in 2024, and its US, Brazil, and Japan type certifications are in progress rather than granted, with no FAA BVLOS authorization. A correction worth recording: the storyline of a German delivery-drone startup struggling financially into insolvency belongs to Volocopter, which filed for insolvency in December 2024, not to Wingcopter, whose risk signal is thin revenue and repeated capital raises rather than a filed insolvency.","identifier":"9318fc41-6011-427d-b1a0-529ecf668815","category":"aerial","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}}}