QLEX Creo | QLEX Creo – Bringing reach to the drone market.

Summary
The impact of drones and its commercial applications is often being compared with the disruptive force of the IT revolution. Soon, clients in all areas of the economy will begin to see the impact of drones on their operational processes – from the way they inspect construction sites to the way they receive goods like parcels or blood supply. The global market for commercial applications of drones – in 2016 estimated at about EUR 1.9 bn – will rise to as much as EUR 118 bn by 2020. But the application of today’s drones is limited by a crucial weakness in technology: reach. Depending on the construction type, today’s comparable industry class electric drones cannot fly longer 2 hours. Short flight time is one key barrier for a widespread usage of drones. Especially the transport industry is dependent on longer distance flights.
At QLEX we developed the QLEX Creo – a winged drone that can takeoff and land vertically and achieve 4-5 hours of flight time. We achieved this breakthrough efficiency by completely rethinking the architecture, aerodynamics and propulsion systems of how drones can be built.
QLEX has been running for two years, but was a secret until now. We spent the last 24 months in stealth mode designing, prototyping and testing the Creo and forming a highly skilled and experienced team of leading experts and engineers and startup shaped business developers.
We now established our company, the QLEX GmbH, to assess the technological feasibility and commercial potential of the Creo.
One key objective of this project is a record-breaking proof of concept by carrying out a delivery from German mainland to remote island Helgoland and return in one non-stop flight. No competing solution is close of being capable of achiving this.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/790600
Start date: 01-12-2017
End date: 31-10-2018
Total budget - Public funding: 71 429,00 Euro - 50 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The impact of drones and its commercial applications is often being compared with the disruptive force of the IT revolution. Soon, clients in all areas of the economy will begin to see the impact of drones on their operational processes – from the way they inspect construction sites to the way they receive goods like parcels or blood supply. The global market for commercial applications of drones – in 2016 estimated at about EUR 1.9 bn – will rise to as much as EUR 118 bn by 2020. But the application of today’s drones is limited by a crucial weakness in technology: reach. Depending on the construction type, today’s comparable industry class electric drones cannot fly longer 2 hours. Short flight time is one key barrier for a widespread usage of drones. Especially the transport industry is dependent on longer distance flights.
At QLEX we developed the QLEX Creo – a winged drone that can takeoff and land vertically and achieve 4-5 hours of flight time. We achieved this breakthrough efficiency by completely rethinking the architecture, aerodynamics and propulsion systems of how drones can be built.
QLEX has been running for two years, but was a secret until now. We spent the last 24 months in stealth mode designing, prototyping and testing the Creo and forming a highly skilled and experienced team of leading experts and engineers and startup shaped business developers.
We now established our company, the QLEX GmbH, to assess the technological feasibility and commercial potential of the Creo.
One key objective of this project is a record-breaking proof of concept by carrying out a delivery from German mainland to remote island Helgoland and return in one non-stop flight. No competing solution is close of being capable of achiving this.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

SMEInst-10-2016-2017

Update Date

27-10-2022
Geographical location(s)
Structured mapping
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EU-Programme-Call
Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.2. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP
H2020-EU.2.1. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
H2020-EU.2.1.1. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
H2020-EU.2.1.1.0. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - ICT - Cross-cutting calls
H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility
H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility
H2020-EU.2.3. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
H2020-EU.2.3.1. Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility
H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility
H2020-EU.3. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES
H2020-EU.3.4. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport
H2020-EU.3.4.0. Cross-cutting call topics
H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility
H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017
SMEInst-10-2016-2017 Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility