INSIGHT
Before Zipline came along , hospital staff would have to make three 60km drives per week to collect blood from Kigali , Rwanda ’ s capital , with those trips taking around four hours to complete – and those supplies often arriving too late for seriously ill patients .
With vast and difficult terrain to cover , you ’ d be forgiven for wondering how many drones don ’ t actually end up where they ’ re meant to go , or simply fail to return to base . Zipline has avoided those pitfalls by using fixed-wing drones that
Zipline - Mbeya Tanzania are more resilient than the more common multicopter models . With a 75km delivery service radius , these drones are able reach eight million Rwandans from a single launch site .
The drones are autonomous , so they fly in a straight line to the GPS coordinates of the delivery site and when they arrive , they come closer to the ground . Then the package is dropped from a simple paper parachute .
Urgent supplies can be delivered right onto the doorstep of a hospital within minutes , which really can mean the difference between life or death for thousands of patients .
Once the drop has taken place the drone turns itself around and comes back to base before flying straight out again . With unpiloted drones not requiring lunch breaks , they ’ re able to fly 24 / 7 and can make 500 drops per day .
Sid Rupani is LLamasoft ’ s Regional Director : “ Zipline works with the aviation authorities in each country so that we can adhere to no-fly zones ,” he explains . “ The drones actually fly very low to the ground , so they ’ re generally not around other planes to begin with . Plus , if one engine fails , the
10 November 2017