Bulgaria's First New Plane in Decades Is a Freakishly Strong Drone

Moving stuff by air may be quick and convenient, but it's also horridly expensive, accounting for just 1 percent of global shipping by volume--and 35 percent of it by cost. So while autonomous drones dropping a few pounds of snacks or medical supplies are generating plenty of buzz, two Bulgarian brothers see an opening in the long-haul business. And they think they've got the tech to start flying hundreds of pounds of cargo over hundreds of miles, no pilot or 747 required. Svilen and Konstantin Rangelov are the CEO and chief technology officer, respectively, of Dronamics. They've spent the past four years developing an aircraft that can haul nearly 800 pounds of cargo up to 1,550 miles, a far cry from the 10 or 15 miles, or even just a few blocks, that most drone delivery services are targeting.