Skyports has used the Swoop Aero Kookaburra III drone to ferry more than 400 pathology samples between UK medical facilities.
Skyports Drone Services has announced the successful completion of a four-week drone delivery trial in partnership with EMED Group, one of the UK’s largest medical transport companies.
Described by London-based Skyports as a “proof-of-concept project,” the initiative saw the two companies successfully transport more than 400 pathology specimens between two medical facilities operated by the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (Esneft), an existing customer of EMED Group.
The drone used in the trial was the fixed-wing, 3 kg-payload Swoop Aero Kookaburra III, according to Skyports. It described the aircraft as a “tried and tested platform” frequently used by the startup on medical delivery missions, with tens of thousands of kilometers flown to date.
“We’re at a really important stage in the scaling of medical drone logistics,” Skyports Drone Services Director Alex Brown said in a statement. “Projects such as this one with EMED are helping pave the way for permanent operations by demonstrating just how safe, beneficial and effective drone services are–and the ease with which they can be implemented.”
The initiative with EMED Group is the latest drone delivery trial rolled out by Skyports, which is mainly focused on middle-mile deliveries between businesses as well as maritime and offshore deliveries, according to Brown, who says the company has seen an uptick in demand from UK-based customers.
As an example, Skyports recently partnered with UK postal delivery company Royal Mail to provide the Orkney Islands in Scotland with a drone-based mail distribution service using the Speedbird Aero DLV-2 multicopter drone. Those trials, which are set to run from June through August, follow drone trials elsewhere in Scotland, including medical equipment supplies in Dundee and Angus in the Western Isles.
Skyports operates a fleet of around 50 drones ranging from small platforms like the Kookabarra III and DLV-2–capable of carrying up to 3 kg and 6 kg payloads, respectively–to the Pyka Pelican uncrewed heavy-lift short-takeoff-and-landing (sTOL) aircraft, which carries up to 200 kg, according to Brown.
“We’re a drone airline, essentially, with probably six different types of drones, mostly being used for deliveries or inspections,” Brown says. “We’ve got both multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft with a range of sizes and capabilities. It’s a really varied bunch, and the reason we do that is there’s no one drone to rule them all. You need a wide fleet in the same way that DHL has vans and buses and trucks and boats and that sort of thing.”
