Making Drone Deliveries Scalable and Economically Viable
Making Drone Deliveries Scalable and Economically Viable
By: Tony Basile, NUAIR Chief Operating Officer
Recently we completed a project with SUNY Upstate Medical University and DroneUp to see how many medical deliveries we could do with a drone over the city of Syracuse. All-in-all the project took about a year to get all the pieces in place to conduct these advanced operations.
There’s a lot that goes into conducting safe drone operations and our team’s years of experience helped expedite the waiver approval process with the FAA. Yes, a year’s worth of preparation to gather the necessary documentation and prove-out the safety case for these operations is a “quick” turnaround. Now that’s not a slight on the FAA, it just shows you that there’s a lot of factors to consider and plan for when conducting advanced operations like this.
These operations help us move the industry forward, showcasing to the FAA, industry, and standards organizations that commercial drone operations can be conducted safely and can provide economic benefits to the organization using them and the communities they serve.
Earlier this year, in an attempt to help in the fight against COVID-19, NUAIR, SUNY Upstate Medical University and DroneUp collaborated as part of the COVID-19 Humanitarian UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Response Partnership (CHURP). The CHURP team successfully transported unused COVID-19 test kits from one building to another on the SUNY Campus, showcasing quick, contactless deliveries using drones.
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