China’s state-owned Norinco Group has just successfully completed the maiden flight of its Changying-8 (CY-8) unmanned cargo drone, and it’s a proper heavyweight designed to shift a 3.5-tonne payload. Billed as an “unmanned aerial HGV,” the aircraft is engineered for rapid-response logistics and disaster relief, capable of hauling itself into the air from runways as short as 200 metres. The future of shipping has officially arrived, and it seems the next generation of haulage is ditching the cockpit for a serious set of propellers.
