July 17 will be a day of victory to the countless amounts of people who have been fighting for looser regulations on drone usage. For the first time, a drone with a seal of approval from the FAA will deliver pharmaceuticals to a free medical clinic in West Virginia. This project is a collaboration between NASA, Virginia Tech, and Flirtey. The fixed-wing air vehicle was built at NASA Langley and its multi-rotor delivery drones were manufactured by Flirtey.
Organizers of the event hope to showcase how drones can be used for positive events rather than be used for malicious purposes or by those who solely fly them for entertainment. The purpose of these drones will be to bring medication to underserved areas of the community.
According to Matt Sweeny, CEO of Flirtey, “Proving that unmanned aircraft can deliver life-saving medicines is an important step toward a future where unmanned aircraft make routine autonomous deliveries of your every day purchases.”
Primarily made of aluminum and fiber, the hexacopter also has dome 3d printed materials on it. The aircraft has the ability to fly over 10 miles from its starting point and can drop cargo off via a tethered line. It also has safety features that warn users about low battery or loss of GPS signal. In such cases, it will automatically return to its home base.
This July 17, the drone will drop off as many as 24 packages of medication that will weigh about 10 pounds. Just like this drone is being used to serve a good purpose, many drone supporters believe that it is a glimpse of what we will see in the future; more relax regulations of drone usage, allowing people to receive other items at their doorstep.
Fixed wing by NASA, hex by Flirtey… are they dropping the hex from the fixed wing? So many issues… primarily retrieval. More than likely there is no fixed wing involved, just bad writing.
Low battery alarm after half way point seem futile. Second HB’s point about RTH w/o GPS lock. Until there is a truly live FPV over internet (prefer sat if you want to leave cell tower range), there is no way to make beyond visual line of sight happen beyond 5.8ghz range… short of sense and avoid with defined land and retrieve areas… i.e. your block or appt. building has one drop off location.
Tethered line delivery? Why is it not landing to drop off?
Is this really FAA sanctioned, or are they doing it as hobbyists? The medicine is free and “not for commercial use”. Where can I read about there 333 exemption and COA?
I’m all for making this happen, but this feels much more like a PR stunt that actual progress in the industry.
Did you ever find the 333? I would be very interested to see it, it’s not on the FAA site.
RTH- Return to home without GPS signal lock is a good laugh, LOL! Operators will have to fly each package delivery live via FPV there will not be autonomous wide spread use for a decade or two.