by DRONELIFE Staff Author Ian J. McNabb
A partnership between Japanese and Mongolian UAV and healthcare organizations recently accomplished a blood delivery between an Ulaanbataar hospital and transfusion center with the intention of eventually establishing regular medical delivery services in the realm. Aeronext, NewCom Group, Seino and KDDI Smart jointly announced the demonstration flight, which took place over a 9.5km span earlier this yr.
Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia, is a difficult environment for UAV operations with high winds, significant altitude, and very low temperatures. Nevertheless, because of its high congestion and population density (roughly half of Mongolia’s entire population lives inside city limits), there’s a big need for increased UAV infrastructure, especially as air pollution rises. After the “Mongolia Recent Smart Logistics Symposium 2023”, a working group was established to try to develop drone delivery and other advanced air infrastructure projects within the region. This project is the newest accomplishment of the working group as they work towards regular flight operations.
In accordance with the press release, this was the primary ever logistics flight to feature Level 4 BVLOS operation over a populated area at -15° C (5° F) at an altitude of 1300m. The UAV used was the AirTruck logistics drone, jointly developed by Aeronext and ACSL with a 5kg payload and a maximum range of 20km.
Other recent advances in drone medical flights include recent drone deliveries of over 6000 vaccine doses to distant areas of the Ethiopian Highlands (also at significant altitude) by Swoop Aero, an Australian firm.
The unique (Japanese-language) press release is offered here.