Modern delivery service
Wingcopter receives major order: German drones as medical suppliers for the USA
A drone from the German start-up Wingcopter
© abaca | ABACA/Picture Alliance
What sounds like a dream of the future is to become reality in the USA: drones are to fly around and deliver medical goods. The South Hessian drone manufacturer Wingcopter has received a corresponding large order.
The South Hessian company Wingcopter has received a major order worth more than 16 million dollars (14.1 million euros) from the US company Spright. Accordingly, the German start-up should deliver “a large fleet” of drones for medical deliveries, as the company announced on Monday. It remained unclear how many unmanned aerial vehicles the number should be. But it is one of the largest orders for delivery drones ever.
With the help of the “Wingcopter 198” drones, the transport of vital medical supplies, medicines, vaccines, blood and laboratory samples between hospitals, especially in rural areas, is to be ensured. In addition, the companies promise an improved quality of patient care, “since laboratory samples are available more quickly and the patients can be treated in a more targeted manner”. And the small aircraft should have another positive effect: the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Wingcopter 198 can transport up to three separate packages with a total weight of six kilos. According to the manufacturer, the drone has a range of 75 to 110 kilometers, depending on the payload. Its flight speed is 100 km/h. Thanks to its tilt rotor technology, it can take off vertically and then fly like an airplane in the air. It flies autonomously and can use built-in sensors and a camera to avoid obstacles such as parachutists or flocks of birds. A pilot also monitors the aircraft via a system.
Drones already in use as medical suppliers
“The rural regions in the USA are those with the greatest potential for drone flights,” Tom Plummer, co-founder and managing director of Wingcopter, told the “FAZ”. Above all, it makes sense to fly where a car is not worthwhile due to the long distances.
This is shown by the projects from regions on earth with poor medical care. The Wingcopters have already been deployed in Malawi, in the south-east of Africa. There, several health stations were supplied with vital medicines, blood supplies and, for example, medical masks. On the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has delivered corona vaccine to remote locations.
Spright plans expansion with Wingcopter
Spright is already conducting an initial trial in the community of Hutchinson, Kansas, and plans to expand its services later this year. The company is currently building a network in the USA that uses the more than 300 existing bases of Spright’s parent company Air Methods to provide medical care to hospitals.
In addition, the agreement stipulates that Spright will be the exclusive partner for maintenance, repair and servicing of the Wingcopter 198 in the USA. Wingcopter is now aiming for series production of its drone.
Source: wingcopter, FAZ