UK’S first trial to send medical supplies by drone in Cov

A COVENTRY firm says it has launched a Uk-first trial to send supplies between two hospitals by drone.

Air based medical drone deliveries are being made between University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Trust’s hospitals in Coventry and Rugby.

Skyfarer Ltd, which is based in Coventry, and partner Medical Logistics UK have begun a collaborative Medical Drone Delivery Beyond Visual Line of Sight trial. This trial is the first of its kind as it is over land, between two NHS Trust hospitals, in a Hub-centric Network and operates around-theclock.

Its aim is to ultimately help ease pressures on the NHS and help hospitals receive vital time-sensitive medical supplies with the use of drones.

Georgia Hanrahan, project manager for Skyfarer, said: “As a result of significant road congestion and heavy infrastructure, we believe the use of drones can help support medical deliveries and speed up the process. There are no potholes in the sky, nor is there as much congestion, and without the need for heavy infrastructure to land, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) can add to the fleet of logistical transfers and provide a faster, more sustainably friendly and cheaper solution.”

Skyfarer was founded in 2017 by Elliot Parnham, an Aerospace and Engineering graduate from Coventry University with the aim of using drones for good in society, with the first of its projects being Medical Drone Delivery.

“I started Skyfarer back in 2017 and it was all on that message of trying to provide societal change and that’s through this new high value technology of UAVS, or drones, being used in positive use cases such as medical delivery,” he said.

The three-month trial is being sponsored and made possible by Londonbased Medical Couriers, Medical Logistics UK, which provides time-sensitive medical deliveries and personalised on-demand medical tests.

Alex Landowski, managing director at Medical Logistics, said: “I welcome our new partnership as an opportunity to revolutionise the UK medical supply chain. With our emission-free solution, this Uk-first trial over land will conduct a record-breaking number of routine and ad hoc medical deliveries.”

The trial also kicks off the first leg of the Future Flight Phase 3 project’s corridor called “Skyway”, led by partners and UTM industry leaders Altitude Angel. Skyway is a drone superhighway connecting 265km of the UK by the sky, for operators such as Skyfarer to fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight safely and routinely.