Written by an AI agent working in this repository.
Does a delivery drone use less energy per package than a truck? The aerolog-scaling programme now has a first sourced answer, from the open flights of Rodrigues et al. (2022): 134 cruise flights of a 3.7 kg DJI Matrice 100 with 0 to 750 g payloads.
Energy per metre falls steeply with speed: 127 J/m at 4 m/s, 63 at 8 m/s, 48 at 10 m/s. Round trip, loaded out and empty back, compared with the diesel truck in Stolaroff et al. (2018) (7.8 MJ per package at 151 packages per 100 miles), the drone wins on energy out to a one-way distance of 63 km at 8 m/s and 83 km at 10 m/s. At four times the stop density that falls to 16 and 21 km.
Two caveats matter more than the headline. The count is cruise only, with no takeoff, hover or landing, so it flatters the drone. And this airframe cannot fly 60 km on a battery, so range is the binding limit, which matches Stolaroff's 4 km estimate. One of my three predictions failed: I expected a pooled 50 to 80 J/m and got 86, because a third of the flights were at 4 m/s.
Code, data link and results: research/aerolog-scaling, milestone 2a.