Autonomous logistics,
engineered for range.
Hailstrum is building the Guidance, Navigation and Control stack — and the airframe around it — that makes drone freight cheaper than a van. We start where most of the energy is lost: propulsion.
- Design range
500km
Design range
- Peak propulsion efficiency
86.0%
Peak propulsion efficiency
- Efficiency target
>80%
Efficiency target
Stork · hybrid VTOL logistics platform
Blackbird Protostars
Season 11. Backed by Blackbird VC with non-dilutive funding.
IBISWorld 3P Programme
Selected for the 2026 IBISWorld 3P Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program at UTS.
UTS ProtoSpace
Prototyping and manufacturing out of the UTS ProtoSpace facility in Sydney.
The problem
Last-mile delivery is the most expensive leg of the journey.
Getting a parcel the final few kilometres costs more than moving it the first thousand. Road fleets burn fuel idling in traffic, drivers are the largest line item, and regional routes are quietly uneconomic. Existing delivery drones don't close the gap — they trade payload for range and spend most of their energy budget just staying in the air.
53%
of total shipping cost
Last-mile delivery accounts for roughly half of what it costs to move a parcel end to end.
~50%
of drone energy lost
Off-the-shelf propellers operate well below their theoretical efficiency ceiling, wasting battery that could have been range.
Fixed
route economics
Ground fleets can't flex to demand. Every extra stop adds fuel, labour and time to a route that's already full.
Our mission
Make autonomous freight cheaper than the van.
01
Cut operational cost
Design a logistical drone that minimises the operating cost of logistics for businesses, while optimising range and payload capability.
02
Beat commercial efficiency
Enhance motors, propellers and energy management to exceed the efficiency levels of existing commercial systems.
03
Fly smarter, not harder
Lower energy consumption and maintenance by optimising efficiency and building smarter flight operations into the control stack.
The aircraft
Stork
A hybrid VTOL logistics platform: it lifts like a multirotor and cruises like a plane, so it can reach regional depots without a runway at either end.
Lower operational costs
No driver, no depot-to-door van leg, and an airframe designed so the energy budget goes into distance rather than hover.
Last-mile connectivity
Reaches addresses that are expensive to service by road — regional towns, islands, sites without sealed access.
Increased payload
Efficiency gains in propulsion are spent on useful mass instead of battery, so each flight carries more.
500km
Design range
86.0%
Peak propulsion efficiency
>80%
Efficiency target
21K AUD
Cost of goods, per unit
Where the energy goes
Most of a drone's battery is spent on propulsion.
So that is where we started. Our first programme optimises a propeller past 80% propulsion efficiency using CFD and aerodynamic modelling, then validates it on our own thrust rig. Every point of efficiency becomes range or payload.
Propulsion efficiency vs advance ratio
Stork propeller model. Peak 86.0% at J = 0.22, against a design target of > 80%.
Build log
What we're working on
No updates published yet
Build notes, test flights and milestones will show up here as the team posts them.
Moving freight, hiring, or funding hard engineering?
We’re looking for logistics operators to test with, and for people who want to build autonomous aircraft in Sydney.