FAA-approved drone delivery test flight set to take place today
Unmanned aerial vehicles built by the Australian company Flirtey is set to make the first US Federal Aviation Administration approved delivery by drone today.
The drones will be transporting medical supplies to a town in Wise County, Southwest Virginia.
According to sources, NASA aircraft will transport more than 500 pounds of medication from the Tazewell County Airport in Cedar Bluff, Virginia, to the Lonesome Pine Airport in Wise. The supplies will be loaded on six-rotor hexacopter drones that will be flown by remote control to the clinic at the Wise County Fairgrounds.
The drone delivery is being organized as part of a week-long series of “Let’s Fly Wisely” events taking place in Wise in order to “explore the possibilities and implications of unmanned aerial technology”.
As previously reported, Flirtey has already taken part in other tests. In mid-June, it teamed up with Fastway Couriers to organize New Zealand’s first parcel delivery by drone. The drone transported car parts between the Auckland suburbs of Penrose and Mt Wellington, a 1.9km journey which took around five minutes.
