e350 Flying Cargo Van. Foto: Grasshopper Air Mobility

Flying delivery van: Grasshopper Air Mobility founder Jakob Saalfrank in an eMove360° interview

An example of the innovative power of German entrepreneurs in the international and European environment: The young German visionary Frank Saalfeld is moving to Barcelona in 2021 to realize his vision of a flying-driving drone. In 2023 he founded the startup Grasshopper Air Mobility and just one year later Saalfrank was named the best startup 2024 in the Aviation category at the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW) with his e350 Flying Cargo Van.

Sabine Metzger spoke to him for the current eMove360° magazine in german language about his exciting path there and his plans for the future.

Mr. Saalfrank, thank you very much for taking the time. Please briefly outline your career so far.

Jakob Saalfrank: I grew up in Berlin in the early 2000s, as a child in the east, as a teenager in the west, and later in high school I spent a year in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from high school, I studied International Business at the HWR Berlin and worked at various startups during that time. I also studied in Cambridge for a year and did an internship in Barcelona for a year.

After completing my bachelor’s degree, I worked in Graz as an IT logistics consultant for SSI Schäfer, a company that builds fully and semi-automated warehouses in Europe and around the world. During my time there, I accompanied and managed projects in the Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

During the pandemic, I earned a master’s degree in digital product management. At the end of 2021, I decided to follow my vision, quit my permanent job and start my own startup.

How did you develop your vision of a flying-driving drone?

Saalfrank: I came up with the idea during my time in Graz. There, I had to commute 20 kilometers to the company headquarters in a village every morning and evening. That took an hour each way by public transport. I asked myself, why are there no flying cars? In my vision, it should fly autonomously, be used as a shared mobility model and be able to function in a climate-neutral way.

How can you imagine that? You have a vision, go to Barcelona, ​​start a startup. How exactly did it continue?

Saalfrank: “I actually had my vision back in 2018, shortly after I went to Austria. I wanted to quit there, but then I actually continued working for three and a half years.

At the end of 2021, I finally moved to Barcelona and had to figure out how to build a life so that I could start a startup? I looked for a part-time job and became self-employed to gain experience. At the beginning of 2023, I decided not to accept any more large freelance contracts so that I could devote my time to founding the startup alongside my part-time job.

I started writing a pitch deck, analyzing the competitors, attending various events and building a team. After many weeks on LinkedIn and in online interviews, I had met many interested employees and potential co-founders and at one point I simply started working on the idea together with a core group. At the end of 2023, I founded the company.”

You keep mentioning a flying car for passengers. How did it come about that you are now developing a cargo drone?

Saalfrank: In the course of our analysis in the early days, we had to realize that the idea of ​​the flying car actually did not fail because of the technology, but because of the regulatory hurdles. According to a study by the Roland Berger Institute, the certification of such a car costs between 2 and 2.5 billion euros. This in turn means that you have to invest this amount before you can test your own business model.

In 2023, we decided to tailor our flying car to logistics. This is where the fact that I worked in automated logistics for three and a half years comes in handy.

Can you briefly explain the “flying delivery van”, the e350 Flying Cargo Van?

Saalfrank: Our e350 model, comparable in size to a small car, has foldable wings and a pivoting jet engine that enable it to both fly and also drive on roads. This flexibility allows the drone to switch seamlessly between air and ground transport, making it ideal for fast and efficient deliveries.

This means that we take off and land like a helicopter, but in the air we fly like an airplane on wings to reach a speed of 220 km/h over a distance of 200 km.

After landing, we fold the wings and drive to the end point, in our case warehouses, factories, industrial zones, airports, ports, or other infrastructure points. The overall concept is based on a cargo container system in which the majority of the batteries are located. At the start and destination there is then an infrastructure on which the containers are loaded and unloaded.

This means that a cargo container is always unloaded with discharged batteries and the corresponding load that needs to be delivered. Then the next container is picked up, which contains fresh batteries and is already loaded with the next cargo. This means that there is always an exchange of batteries and load. In fact, no turnaround time is necessary and the entire process works without a human actually having to interact with the drone.

What can the e350 transport?

Saalfrank: Our focus is industrial cargo that is transported on pallets. The maximum transport weight of the pallets for the e350 is 350kg. We are targeting the manufacturing industry, just-in-time manufacturing, complex supply chains such as automotive supply chains, pharmaceutical products, electrical products, high-quality, expensive or sensitive products, and deliveries that are needed quickly.

What makes the e350 special?

Saalfrank: What sets our drone apart from other cargo drones is its direct integration into ground logistics processes. Our goal is to directly connect the industry of tomorrow with the air mobility of tomorrow. There is no other drone in the world that is aimed at the automated industry. We achieve this through our integrated driving capability and with our aforementioned infrastructure, the Charging and Loading Stations, or CLS for short.

Another feature is that we place a great focus on sustainability. We operate completely emission-free, ensure that our suppliers select their products from a good supply chain and try to use circular economy manufacturing. We are also planning a hydrogen-powered version, which is actually even more positive for the environment than electromobility. We are also pioneers here, as most other heavy-duty drones rely on combustion engines.

We are thus targeting two different core application areas of tomorrow: on the one hand, Industry 4.0 with automated, IOT-operated warehouses and factories, and the cities of tomorrow that are striving for car-free zones.

Why do the advantages go far beyond conventional air freight solutions?

Saalfrank: Our systems are designed to achieve maximum efficiency through autonomy by making human intervention virtually obsolete. On the one hand, this leads to uninterrupted transparency in the delivery process, in which all data is continuously generated and made visible. On the other hand, safety is also increased, as no human can access the transported goods, neither during loading or unloading, nor during transport in the air. Furthermore, we reduce the risk of human error and at the same time increase the reliability of our deliveries.

Another decisive advantage is the drastic reduction in turnaround time. Our drones are designed in such a way that they do not require any waiting times at landing sites. After unloading at a destination, they immediately drive on to take on the next order. This not only makes our operations faster, but also much more efficient, as every landing site is used optimally and thus the complexity of our landing infrastructure is significantly reduced.

In addition, the direct integration of our technology into industrial areas enables seamless integration into existing logistics processes. In theory, a single landing infrastructure, a so-called vertiport, can serve an entire industrial area autonomously. This is possible because our drones are able to efficiently drive to any location within a radius of 10 kilometers.

What challenges do you face? What are the next important steps?

Saalfrank: There are two really big hurdles. First of all, our startup is financed entirely from the founders’ own pockets, and we as a founding team have no experience of founding a company. This means that, although we have surrounded ourselves with experienced entrepreneurs, we are constantly gaining new experiences and are in a learning process.

The second hurdle is how do we get from 0 to 1 with an innovative hardware and software product.

In our industry, a certain aircraft certification is required in order to be allowed to fly. The respective flight organization in each country is responsible for this – in Europe the EASA, in the USA the FAA, etc. So in every country in which we want to sell drones, we first have to be certified. Although the costs are significantly lower than for a passenger drone, given the high investment required, we have developed a robust financial model based on conservative estimates and a solid risk management strategy. The number of new aircraft is constantly growing and the FAAs and EASAs of the world are developing corresponding regulations together with the companies, but these will probably not be fully standardized until 2028/29/30.

In the meantime, we will develop a prototype. We will participate in public tenders, form consortia, and bring our product through the various so-called “technology readiness levels” over the years, while we are already taking the first certification steps. In 2025, we are planning a first physical prototype and our pre-seed investor round.

What was the response at the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW)?

Saalfrank: The response was outstanding. We not only published our designs to announce ourselves on the world stage, but even received the startup award for the best startup of 2024 in the aviation category. When the mayor of Barcelona personally presented me with this award and I was able to stand next to him and pitch my vision to the Catalan public, I was really very proud. At that moment, I realized that I had already achieved something as a young German entrepreneur in Barcelona.

Furthermore, global business opportunities have also arisen, which we are pursuing with great enthusiasm. We are in talks with regional airports and continue to participate in many local events to expand our network. I am now a member of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and we are established in the Catalonia startup scene. It can continue like this.

When will the first e350s be in use?

Saalfrank: Realistically, we are talking about a certified, commercial product in 2029. Due to the long and complex certification, many pilot projects, as well as the expensive industrialization process, we are talking about mass deployment in the early 2030s.

However, we are looking for the partners of tomorrow today who are willing to go down this path with us, tailor the product to their industry, and accelerate our development time. With more investment and more backing from the industry – both factors that reinforce each other – it can also work faster in certain regions of the world. If readers feel addressed by this, I look forward to hearing from you!

Where do you see your company in ten years?

Saalfrank: In 10 years we will have many new technologies worldwide and I am sure the world will be unrecognizable. Artificial intelligence will have permeated all areas of life and advanced air mobility with autonomous flight will also be in use worldwide. There will be many new vertiports and many companies will offer flights and transport with a wide variety of aircraft specialized for certain transports.

Grasshopper Air Mobility will have various models of autonomous heavy cargo drones on the market, with different weight classes and distances. We will also offer our flight-drive passenger aircraft as a shared mobility model and thus have integrated rural areas directly into urban areas.

Thank you for the interview.

You can read more articles and interviews about electromobility & autonomous driving in the current issue of the eMove360° magazine in german language. Download the PDF for free or order the print version at sabine.metzger@emove360.com

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