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The latest version of DHL's delivery drone has made more than 100 successful deliveries and can get parcels to remote villages faster than transporting them across difficult terrain in a car.

The third generation of the company's Parcelcopter completed a three month test period of autonomously carrying parcels to and from set locations in Bavaria, Germany.


From January to March this year DHL operated a 'Skyport' where a selected number of private customers in the Reit im Winkl area could take their parcels and put them into the port.

Once the parcel was inserted its delivery system would begin, the drone would take-off and fly to another port eight kilometers away. "The drone's cargo was typically either sporting goods or urgently needed medicines and it arrived at the Alm station within just eight minutes of take-off," DHL said in a statement.

DHL's latest Parcelcopter DHL


The same journey normally takes 30 minutes by car, according to DHL. The drone made 130 deliveries in three months, carrying individual payloads of almost 2kg and flying up to 40mph.

The company launched its first drone delivery service in 2014, with its first development of the Parcelcopter. At the time the copter was used over a 12km open water route, delivering parcels to the car-free island of Juist in Lower Saxony.

The first drone trial could carry up to 1.2kg per trip and provided the community of 1,700 people with basic medical aid.