The US Experiences Its First Legal Drone Delivery

A couple of years ago, Amazon unveiled their plans to use drones to make deliveries. It sounded like an idea with a lot of potential, until the FAA stepped in and poured cold water over it, although later they relented and agreed to let Amazon to conduct some tests at the very least. All of this seemed to signify that drone deliveries could still be a long way from happening.

At least until now where thanks to a project called Let’s Fly Wisely, a drone delivery was successfully made in the US which was conducted with the blessings of regulators. This saw the delivery of medication to a free clinic, which also served to highlight how difficult it can be to deliver healthcare in the more rural parts of the country or even the world.

The drone was put together by an Australian startup called Flirtey, with the help from Virginia Tech and NASA. According to the company’s CEO Matt Sweeny, “Proving that unmanned aircraft can deliver lifesaving medicines is an important step toward a future where unmanned aircraft make routine autonomous deliveries of your everyday purchases.”

The company also tweeted, “Flirtey has successfully delivered 24 medical packages to patients in Wise County, making history as the first approved US drone delivery!” Now as to when drone deliveries will become more common is anyone’s guess, but given that regulators have at the very least approved one delivery, we can only take it as a good sign of things to come.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical, Robots
Tags: Drones