Drone to Deliver Corona Tests

Drone to Deliver Corona Tests

drone delivery

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Drones offer the opportunity to quickly and easily take corona tests, drugs or personal protective equipment to places that are difficult to reach by conventional means of transport. 

A drone delivery trial supporting the Covid-19 response will take place in Scotland. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of transporting Covid-19 test kits and other urgent medical cargo to and from remote medical facilities by drone.

The U.K.-based drone operator and eVTOL infrastructure developer Skyports has partnered with Thales on the two-week trial. Skyports will conduct the trial using aircraft from the German drone maker Wingcopter. The trial flights will be planned by  Thales’ drone operations management platform, Soarizon. 

The two-way flights will take place between a hospital in Oban, on the Scottish mainland, and another hospital 10 miles (16 kilometers) away on the Isle of Mull.

Currently, transporting test kits and specimens between the facilities takes up to six hours by ground transport and ferry. It is expected that drone transport will cut those delivery times to just 15 minutes, according to uasweekly.com.

Skyports CEO Duncan Walker said the trial ”provides an important short-term response to the current pandemic and lays the foundations from which to grow a permanent drone delivery operation across a network of healthcare facilities around the country.”

The project team has been working closely with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to secure the approvals needed for the beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations. Following the trial, the team plans to continue working with the CAA and NHS to make services available to other NHS boards and trusts.