Lentola began developing delivery drones in 2017. Over the years, we have designed and tested several different concepts to find the best one. We have learned a lot about the performance of different wing and fuselage solutions along the way. We were the first in the world to test, among other things, the folding-wing tailsitter (pictured), which attracted a lot of attention.

The safety requirements set by the authorities for various products are sometimes strict. The safety requirements set by EASA for drones are particularly strict. Our concept had to meet these requirements as well, leaving only a few viable design options. We don’t know of any other systems that we would dare to fly in almost any weather conditions.

In addition to our drones, we have designed and tested delivery boxes, parachutes and their mounting brackets suitable for drone delivery. In order for the product to end up in the customer’s yard, the drop must be done with a fraction of a second accuracy at the desired coordinates. At the time of drop, the flight speed can be 25 m/s and the wind direction can vary.

Since there were no user interfaces available that were suitable for fast-paced drone delivery operations, we designed it ourselves. Lentola’s user interface enables easy, fast and safe route planning that takes into account the needs of drone delivery. With our user interface, the operator can take into account everything essential: e.g. terrain height differences, restricted and no-fly zones. The experience gained over thousands of flights helped us in designing the user interface.

Dozens of articles have been written about Lentola. Yle (Finnish national broadcasting company) first wrote about Lentola in 2022, when we were starting BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flights. Since then, we have proven the system’s performance by performing thousands of flights and delivering grocery bags, pharmacy supplies, newspapers and defibrillators. The factor that unites our customers has been the difficult access routes, which are especially found near waterways.