A set of drones manufactured by Flirtey were approved by the FAA to take medicine to a rural Virginia hospital that would normally take a 90-minute drive. Unsurprisingly, the drone operation went off without a hitch.
The two drones successfully delivered medicine to the hospital. Is this the first step in the FAA’s authorization of using drones for the delivery of household packages?
The Drone Delivery System
Two drones were used to make the normally 90-minute journey from where the first drone took off. The first one was a larger drone that flew for 20 minutes with the supplies until it came to an airport that was close by the hospital.
The second drone took the medicine on 6 separate take-offs and landings due to battery constraints. Even with the 6 landings, it only took around 3 more minutes for it to reach its final destination. The overall time of the trip for the drones was little over 23 minutes from start to finish. The same journey would have taken a car or ambulance at least 90 minutes due to the winding roads and the geography of the landscape!
Let’s Use Drones for Everything!
While that may be the goal for some people, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently has a ban on unmanned drone deliveries. This was a special occasion that was specifically approved by the FAA. Those looking to use drones frequently for deliveries like Google and Amazon are hoping that this will help loosen the FAA’s firm grip on drone regulations. Hopefully this will show how useful and safe that drones can be.
Drones Making Future Deliveries
The FAA will have to approve package deliveries by drones, but small-scale test deliveries like this could significantly help with this type of advancement. If drone deliveries are ever approved, companies like Amazon and Google will likely create a fleet immediately as they have already expressed heavy interest in the technology.
This would cut delivery times of packages ordered offline exponentially. As was shown by this approved test, the drones will be able to get medicine and other medical supplies to those who need is so much quicker. In the medical field, mere minutes could mean life or death, and it is already been shown that drones could get supplies where they need to be much faster. Perhaps drones will be delivering packages and supplies sooner rather than later.
