The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave permission on Friday for the use of a drone to deliver medicine in rural Virginia. The event could possibly help change perceptions that the drone is only a toy or a weapon.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Friday demonstration was made possible because of the special FAA permit given to NASA, the owner of the Cirrus SR-22; Flirtey, a drone-delivery startup; and Virginia Tech. Frank Jones, deputy director of NASA Langley's Research Services Directorate, explains, "What we're trying to do is not only develop the technology, but [develop] the public's trust in the technology."
NASA's original plan was for the drone to make six round trips with a load of 10 pounds per trip. However, after two trips that were successful, NASA officials opted to send the remaining medicines on flight. The drugs were prescription medicine ordered by doctors for the yearly Remote Art Clinic, a medical facility in Wise County, Virginia. The clinic takes in 3,000 patients for the annual weekend event.
The drone hopes to cut the waiting time of residents to fill in their prescriptions which come from a pharmacy in Oakwood. The drone deliveries is expected to benefit more than 30 patients for this year's event, said Teresa Gardner, director of the clinic.
A plane made the 20-minute flight from Oakwood to Wise. A pilot helped the drone take off and land, but it was operated mainly from the ground. The actual drone flight, described by Matthew Sweeney, head of Flirtey, as "a Kitty Hawk moment," was three minutes. The batteries of Flirtey's drones could fly up to 20 miles carrying a maximum load of 5.5 pounds.
Jack Kennedy, a long-time resident of Wise, and who led the partnership with Flirtey, believes drone technology is the answer to the area's weak economy that is dependent on coal, hurt by the shift to cleaner and renewable source of energy and away from fossil fuels.
He wants the county to be an early adaptor, saying, "I'm convincing my friends and neighbors and anyone who will listen to my evangelical message locally that this is something that we can exponentially grow over time." He points out, "This is as much of an opportunity as the Internet when it first started. We can be there early," quotes NBC.
Friday's demonstration could be a signal for drone makers to look into rural medicine deliveries as a lucrative near-term business venture due to the high demand and low risk, said Colin Snow, an independent analyst who monitors the drone industry. But the complicated FAA rules that operators need to hurdle is another matter.
FAA's draft drone regulations, expected to be finalized in 2016, bans drone flights over people in cities and other areas beyond the operator's sight. It also bans the drones from carrying objects.
Despite those hurdles, Sweeney considers what happened on Friday a landmark in drone history. He set aside criticisms that it was a minor note, pointing out, "Isn't that like saying the moon landing wasn't significant because we didn't have the technology to get to Mars?"
Other companies have tried drone drug deliveries outside the U.S., such as DHL in Germany.