Pyka’s Pelican Spray drone makes its U.S. debut

Heinen Brothers Agra Services is poised to enhance its extensive fleet with the Pelican Spray. – Photos: Pyka

U.S. company Pyka has named Heinen Brothers Agra Services as the first customer for its first Pelican Spray drone in the U.S. The Kansas-based aerial application service provider plans to integrate the Pelican Spray into its operations across the Midwest, South, and Western regions of the country.

Pelican Spray is the world’s largest autonomous electric crop protection aircraft. As one of North America’s largest privately-owned aerial application service providers, Heinen Brothers Agra Services is poised to enhance its extensive fleet with the Pelican Spray. The company anticipates that this new technology will help them meet peak demand more efficiently through large-scale automation of their aerial application services.

The new partnership follows Pyka’s groundbreaking FAA authorization for the commercial operation of Pelican Spray in the U.S. The Pelican Spray is the largest ever UAS authorized by the FAA for commercial use. The authorization allows Pyka to offer its innovative technology to American farmers.

Significant cost-saving benefits

According to Chief Technology Officer Lukas Koch at Heinen Brothers Agra Services, the company has been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to begin operations with Pelican Spray. “As experts in aerial application, we see the potential for Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) to revolutionize our industry, offering significant cost-saving benefits to American farmers”, Koch points out.

“Pelican Spray is the first autonomous agricultural solution that delivers the necessary work rate and spray performance needed to provide a viable commercial solution to begin augmenting our current fleet”, Koch says. “Ultimately, we want to keep the pilots of our manned aircraft safer, so we are adopting a proactive approach that will allow UAS to handle certain workloads that will get our traditional pilots home safely to their families and loved ones.”

Koch explains that – on an agronomic front – timing is very important for crop health. “New tools like Pelican Spray will help us better serve our customers and their fields. These are groundbreaking times, we hope to facilitate even more agricultural innovation through collaboration with future companies that can unlock even more value from platforms like the Pelican Spray. We are excited for the future of ag aviation and look forward to a long and productive partnership with Pyka.”

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Heinen Brothers Agra Services anticipates that the Pelican Spray will help them meet peak demand more efficiently through large-scale automation of their aerial application services.

Enhancing the capabilities of American producers

Volker Fabian, Chief Commercial Officer at Pyka, emphasizes that Heinen Brothers is a forward-thinking organization that embraces new technologies to enhance the capabilities of American producers and improve the nation’s food production systems overall. “We are thrilled to partner with them and excited to commence U.S. operations with Pelican Spray.”

The Pelican Spray boasts impressive capabilities, with a work rate of 65 hectares per hour (160 acres per hour) at 20 litres per hectare, and 85 hectares per hour (210 acres per hour) at 10 litres per hectare. It has a payload capacity of 281 kilograms (620 pounds) or 281 litres (74 gallons).

One month ago, Pyka and Brazil’s SLC Agricola signed a commercial agreement for the delivery of Pyka’s Pelican Spray autonomous aerial application aircraft.