Airbus to spin off Zephyr drone program into separate company
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Airbus intends to spin off the production and operation of Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicles into a separate company to begin their commercial use at the end of 2024. Financial Times.
Zephyr devices were originally developed by the British defense company QinetiQ, a commercial structure of the UK Department of Defense. They are powered by solar panels and are designed to fly at an altitude of about 21 thousand meters, that is, on the border of the stratosphere and space. Thus, these drones fly above commercial aircraft, but below space satellites.
Airbus has already hired Morgan Stanley to find investors for the project. Samer Halavi, who has been a project manager at Airbus since last summer, told the FT that Zephyr is “now in the final design phase” and the company is “ready to monetize” the aircraft and build a full-fledged business around it. However, according to Mr. Halavi, Airbus itself has never been a telecommunications company, and therefore wants to separate the business into a separate structure, while maintaining control over it.
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