Airbus Drone ‘Mothership’ Seen Taking Flight in Three Years

Airbus SE said it’s aiming to deliver a concept version of its “mothership” A400M cargo plane by 2029 after developing it with a European customer to use the aircraft to deploy drones and deep strike weapons.

The plane will use a modular roll-on, roll-off system to load the drones into the plane, A400M program head Gerd Weber said at the Singapore Airshow on Wednesday. A medium-sized mothership will be able to carry as many as 50 drones, he said.