Drones in China: Unregulated Airspace Expansion to Boost Domestic UAV Industry and Align with International Standards by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian J. McNabb Asia Nikkei, in partnership with Chinese business news conglomerate Caixin, recently reported on newly announced changes by Chinese civil air authorities that could see more of China’s airspace opened up to drones […]
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How’s this for an indicator that drone delivery is huge? The National Health Service, which is the largest employer in Europe, has turned to Zipline drones to help ship critical medical supplies in North East England.
Zipline announced in December 2023 that it would be starting up operations in the United Kingdom via a partnership with the NHS, which is one of the largest public health systems in the world and Europe’s largest employer. Come sometime in fall 2024, it’ll begin conducting deliveries in Northumberland (that’s a county in North East England, bordering Scotland) with its Platform 1 system, which it had launched back in 2023.
With the Zipline-provided drone delivery system, NHS says it expects to see reduced medical care costs and canceled procedures by being able to provide on-demand access to medical equipment.
The news is fairly interesting given that the NHS is the largest employer in Europe, with one in every 25 adults in England working for the NHS. What’s more, the service is set to create even more local jobs across robotics and aviation.
As part of the project, Zipline is partnering with another UK-based healthcare logistics company called Apian. Apian was co-founded by a team of former NHS doctors and has built a healthcare-focused aviation platform that provides a fully automated, on-demand delivery system.
As for how it’ll specifically work, Zipline will build a hub for its operations near the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington, Northumberland. That’ll allow Zipline to centralize the inventory of frequently-ordered products such as prescription medicines, wound care products and joint replacement implants. The NHS will then place orders through Apian’s system, and Zipline will fulfill them.
From there, they’ll be in better proximity to health facilities, which for now are set to be:
Zipline’s drones (which it calls Zips) can travel up to 130 miles roundtrip in almost any weather condition. Once the drones approach the delivery location, they release packages with parachutes that float down to a hospital’s outdoor area. Zipline also sys its drones have redundant safety systems and are supervised by trained aviation personnel who can track a Zip’s flight and intervene if necessary.
Unlike many other drone delivery companies such as Flirtey and Flytrex that primarily focus on delivering food products, Zipline’s roots are in medical drone deliveries. The company started in largely developing countries delivering critically-needed medical supplies like blood. After mastering efforts in developing countries, primarily in Africa, Zipline brought its operations to the U.S., where it’s used by companies like Cleveland Clinic, Pfizer, and Walmart.
In fact, Zipline claims it has flown more than 60 million commercial miles to date and delivered millions of medical products worldwide, including more than 13 million vaccine doses. Zipline was considered the largest drone delivery company of 2023.
Zipline is no stranger to medical drone deliveries, though neither are Apian nor the NHS. Back in 2023, Wing (the drone delivery company affiliated with Google) announced it would provide service in South Dublin in tandem with Apian to deliver pharmacy items, laboratory samples, and medical devices and supplies.
But that was contained to Ireland, and this latest set of news applies to a new region. And that’s set to solidify the United Kingdom as a drone powerhouse, a title it’s already been able to claim even before this news came out. For example, the UK was the site of the world’s first permanent postal drone delivery service, a European drone superhighway and it’s seen major developments in the ways drones can be detected.
For its part, Apian already has a wealth of experience with drones. In October 2021, Apian’s own drones conducted the world’s first chemotherapy drone flight. The next summer, Apian drones completed the UK’s first prescription medicine delivery. And by the next spring, Apian conducted the UK’s first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) blood pack delivery.
With these new operations announced last month, Zipline, Apian and the NHS say they will be able to serve nearly three dozen health facilities across the region, reducing the health system’s reliance on expensive last-minute logistics to move products between facilities when needed.
“I’ve seen first hand the impact that running out of supplies can have on patient health outcomes,” said Dr. Christopher Law, Medical Director and Co-Founder of Apian. “Healthcare should benefit from on-demand delivery, much like consumers now do in their personal lives. Delivering critical products with drones, where and when they’re most needed, will improve supply chain efficiency and give doctors, nurses and clinicians more time to focus on the most important thing — their patients.”
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On Dec. 5, 2023, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. completed a major milestone with the full-scale fatigue testing of an MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). The team completed the “first lifetime” of fatigue testing – which is equivalent to 40,000 operating hours – and represents an important step in validating the design of the airframe […]
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $14,305,018 modification (P00010) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N0001923C0002). This modification exercises options and increases the ceiling to provide engineering support, cyber security activities and capabilities, integrated logistics support, material and training services support, software sustainment, and travel in support of sustainment efforts for […]
Ziyan, a Chinese-based startup, is stepping into 2024 with the launch of its latest innovation, the Grey Whale G1, a next-generation cargo unmanned helicopter. The Grey Whale G1 is tailored for transporting payloads across diverse terrains, from islands to high-altitude mountainous regions, promising users enhanced efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and heightened safety in air transportation solutions. Highlighted […]
Taiwan reached another defense milestone after the domestically developed Teng Yun 2 drone stayed airborne for more than 20 hours during its most recent test flight. The drone broke its first record in June last year when it flew for 10 hours straight, following the entire perimeter of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The new […]
The Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Project Management Office, in collaboration with the U.S. Special Operations Command, executed a successful flight demonstration involving the first launch of the Air-Launched, Tube-Integrated Unmanned System (Altius) 700 air vehicle at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The event marks a significant milestone in the Army’s Launched Effects program. The demonstration on Dec. 3, […]aerial view of “Throni” chapel at Kykkos, the burial place of Cyprus’ first president
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