Natilus is a Californian startup company developing seaplane UAVs to ship air cargo. Market Natilus targets an existing $100 billion per year Trans-Pacific airfreight market, growing due to e-commerce and as 30% of US companies sales are international. In 2015 it planned to initially operate a fleet of up to five cargo planes with one partner per route and offering the cargo insurance for the first year, saving operational costs for freight forwarders and increasing the profit margin by 20%. Natilus hopes to build hundreds of the drones, to operate itself under its customer brands or to sell them directly to customers like UPS and FedEx or “medium freight forwarders” like Whole Foods and Costco. It would cost about one-tenth of a crewed freight aircraft, and transoceanic trips would cost about half as much as standard air freight. Natilus hopes to balance speed with cost, shipping time-sensitive freight that isn’t valuable enough to fly, but is more valuable than much of what sails, like perishable food, basic electronic components, vehicles, pharmaceuticals. Bulkier and cheaper goods like crude oil or clothing would still travel slowly but cheaply by sea and high-end goods like sushi-grade fish or luxury cars would still fly faster for more money. Freight is a $15.5 trillion market worldwide. Aircraft The craft would carry in freight containers and unit load devices. It would be towed from a sea ports outside of territorial waters, mostly at from shorelines, to takeoff within in a sea state swell up to . It would fly across the Pacific ocean in 30 hours at , well below passenger air traffic and would be towed to a sea port after landing. Made of carbon fibre and fibreglass composites, its production cost is estimated at $25 million, much lower than jetliners due to fewer onboard systems and no pilots, it would be powered by jet engines developed by Pratt & Whitney. The 2020 carbon-fiber full-scale long turboprop drone design is simple without a cockpit, landing gear, or pressurization and would taxi into port remotely controlled at about . Landing gear room is leaved for future use in the wide large drone. Natilus aims to ship from Los Angeles to Shanghai in 30h for $130,000 at $3 per gallon of jet fuel, while a Boeing 747 takes 11h for $260,000 and a cargo ship takes 504 hours for $61,000 Development A wingspan scale model will test