Zipline drones

[hoverfly]

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/13/a-test-flight-with-zipline-makers-of-humanitarian-delivery-drones/

Whooo Hooo,  won';t have to stagger up to the chemist for my pile ointment. Fantastic...

[Powernumpty]

Had thoughts about "targeted delivery" and "laser guided suppositories" but then remembered this a family friendly forum so thought better of it.

Great to see robotics being used for good, we';ll get the "Terrorist deterrent" ones first, I predict everything inside the M25 will be blanket monitored in five years, we';'; know about it in ten.

[Cheredanine]

I wander how they will keep them under 250g, 50ft, closer than 100ft and under 52kmh? Oh the can';t? Oh well EASA must be right, gues the people will have to die through lack of medication

[hoverfly]

Had thoughts about "targeted delivery" and "laser guided suppositories" but then remembered this a family friendly forum so thought better of it.

Great to see robotics being used for good, we';ll get the "Terrorist deterrent" ones first, I predict everything inside the M25 will be blanket monitored in five years, we';'; know about it in ten.

Suppositories, (laser guided or otherwise) are useless, my doc told me to bung one up the back passage every morning .
Well we don';t have a back passage so i put them on the kitchen windowsill, for all the good it did i might as well have shoved them up my @rse. :embarrassed

[Two-Six]

Looks like there is mega cash going into this project judging by all the SUV';s at that landing demo they had in that video.  That recovery system and the launcher  look really expensive too.

Why not just give that aircraft wheels and scratch a strip in the dirt with an old mattress at the end of it?  Much cheaper.

How much for a one delivery?  A couple of thousand creds?

Why not jut put that cash into a proper blood delivery network?

I guess cos its poor-old Rawanda.  They obviously don';t need conventional public infrastructure.

No they need a multi-million cred investment in a ridiculously over-blown sci-fi solution not boring old 4x4';s, electricity, refrigeration and roads. 

It must be much easier to funnel huge amounts of cash into the hands of a small number of people with this super-fancy solution.   

[guest325]

It looks a quite nice way of doing it to me. The Launcher is not difficult or expensive to make, it could be made from a quite simple air powered cannon to drive the launcher platform; but I agree that the arrestor system is a bit OTT, it only really needs to be Cargo net.
The use of a simple parachute to deliver the goods is OK provided it has enough range for the return trip. Using a fixed wing with two small(ish) motors will be more efficient than a Multi-rotor especially if it has intelligent use of the motors i.e. powers down when it can glide.
The biggest hurdle I see a has already been said is making it legally useable.