Kawasaki is a company of many faces. It builds dirt bikes and off-road mules. It builds go-fast UTVs and workman ATVs. There's also supercharged superbikes and classically-styled cafe racers. And it builds VTOL drones powered by those same supercharged superbike engines.
There's also a horse—of course, of course.
And while I know all these things, and RideApart's covered all these things, I still get amazed and bewildered whenever Kawasaki announces it's entering a new, weird space in mobility and transportation that's outside its Ninja sportbike line. Maybe because that was my first motorcycle, maybe because I'm still not used to its diversification?
But the brand's latest venture is one that's way out of left field, at least if you don't count Team Green's helicopter drone concepts. You see, Kawasaki is going to start building UAVs designed specifically for commercial cargo delivery. Yeah, it's basically building an unmanned FedEx truck for the skies. Well, at least the engine for one.
Kawasaki has teamed up with Dronamics, and has agreed to supply the drone maker with engines for its Black Swan unmanned cargo plane. According to Aviation International News, "Kawasaki Motors is developing a piston engine for Dronamics’ Black Swan uncrewed air vehicle (UAV). The Japanese automotive group announced its partnership with the Bulgarian drone start-up on September 18, saying they will work together on all aspects of research and development, integration and testing for the new version of the drone."
Dronamics states that it designed the Black Swan UAV to accept a number of different engine configurations, with a Rotax engine being the primary design, but it can be configured with whatever they need. And that includes a Kawasaki powerplant, with it likely being a version of the H2 motor that has been featured in other drones. The start-up also states that the UAV will have a 770-pound payload capacity and a range of 1,359 nautical miles, and is designed for commercial use.
I don't know any private use that would require that outside of military contractors...
Ahead of the partnership agreement announcement, Kawasaki's Hiroshi Tomomori, the brand's managing executive officer for its Aviation Systems Group, said, "Partnering with Dronamics represents an exciting milestone in Kawasaki Motors’ renewed commitment to aerospace innovation. By combining our long expertise in engine development with Dronamics’s pioneering UAV technology, we aim to deliver propulsion systems that redefine performance in unmanned and general aviation aircraft."
Maybe Top Gun: Maverick was prophetic?
