On November 28, 2018, the 7th edition of the global Unmanned Cargo Aircraft Conference took place during Amsterdam Drones Week, at RAI Amsterdam, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. During the conference, internationally renowned speakers introduced UCA development projects and potential applications.
Speakers from Wings for Aid, The World Bank, US Cargo Systems, TNO, University of Twente, Astral Aerial Solutions, (UN)MANNED, Singular Group, Avy and Delft University of Technology shared the status of the latest developments and trends in the field of unmanned cargo aircraft.
The presentation titles included: Medical Drone Flight in the Netherlands | Silent Delivery Drone, Silentium | Africa – The next frontier for Commercial Drones | Key learnings of Cargo Drone mission for UN in Dominican Republic | Opportunities for Cargo Drones in Africa and Lake Victoria Challenge | FlyOx Cargo Drone and more.
Furthermore, the program also included a 30-minute press announcement. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) and University of Twente launched a new initiative with the purpose to accelerate the introduction of unmanned cargo aircraft.
The complete program included 10 speakers from international well-known companies, associations and start-ups. Below you can see the complete program of the conference:
09:00 | 09:30 | Welcome and Opening | ||
09:30 | 10:00 | ![]() |
Hans Heerkens, Assistant Professor, University of Twente / Chairman, Platform Unmanned Cargo Aircraft, on “UCA around the corner?”, More information |
![]() |
10:00 | 10:30 | ![]() |
Duo Presentation:Sanjeev Gadhia, Director – Innovation, Astral Aerial Solutions, Kenya, on “Africa – The next frontier for Commercial Drones”, More information | ![]() |
![]() |
Duo Presentation: Luis Carrillo, Owner Singular Group, on ‘FlyOx Cargo Drone’, More information | ![]() |
||
10:30 | 11:00 | ![]() |
Christopher Spagnoletti, Director of Sales, US Cargo Systems, USA, on “The Business End of UCA: Round II”, More information | ![]() |
11:00 | 11:30 | Break | ||
11:30 | 12:00 | ![]() |
Filip Verhaeghe, Owner & CEO, (UN)MANNED, Belgium | ![]() |
12:00 | 12:30 | Press announcement on new UCA initiative by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands Aerospace Centre and University of Twente, More information | ||
12:30 | 13:45 | Lunch | ||
13:45 | 14:15 | ![]() |
Barry Koperberg, Founder & General Manager, Wings For Aid, The Netherlands, on “Key learnings of Cargo Drone mission for UN in Dominican Republic”, More information | ![]() |
14:15 | 14:45 | ![]() |
Caroline Gevaert, Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Specialist, The World Bank, on “Opportunities for Cargo Drones in Africa and Lake Victoria Challenge”, More information | ![]() |
14:45 | 15:15 | ![]() |
Patrique (Pi) Zaman, Entrepreneur & Aeronaut, Avy, on “Medical Drone Flight in the Netherlands”, More information |
![]() |
15:15 | 16:00 | Break | ||
Student Session | ||||
16:00 | 16:20 | ![]() |
José Ignacio de Alvear Cárdenas, Aerospace Engineering Master student at Delft University of Technology, on “Silent Delivery Drone, Silentium: The Alternative Method of Package Delivery”, More information | ![]() |
16:20 | 16:40 | ![]() |
Bernd Rietberg, Researcher, TNO / Business Developer, Silverwing, on “Silverwing: Building Future Cargo Drones”, More information |
![]() |
16:40 | 17:30 | Drinks |