Russia tests new VTOL drone

Russia's new VTOL drone was put to the test in in Yakutia. Deputy head of the regional government Anatoly Semenov published a video of the test flight on Telegram.

The UAV is designed to deliver cargo between remote settlements of the republic. The device is equipped with an electric engine. The vehicle can cover distances up to 200 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 1,000 meters.

The device does not need a runway as it is capable of taking off vertically. The drone successfully covered 150 kilometers to deliver medicine, correspondence and sweets to children in the village of Keptin. The flight took only an hour and a half. The same journey by land would have taken from six to nine hours depending on weather conditions.

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Sakha officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eastern Federal District, and is the world's largest country subdivision, covering over 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi). Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city. The republic has a reputation for an extreme and severe climate, with the second lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon (second only to Summit Camp, Greenland), and regular winter averages commonly dipping below −35 °C (−31 °F) in Yakutsk. The hypercontinental tendencies also result in warm summers for much of the republic.