STUBBINGTON – Britain is testing the use of a car-sized drone to deliver medical supplies more quickly to hospitals and help ease pressure on the country’s health system during the new coronavirus crisis.
The first such delivery was completed Saturday, when a large, fixed-wing drone soared into the skies from an airport on England’s south coast.
It landed ten minutes later at an airfield on the Isle of Wight 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) away, where its cargo of pathology samples was then driven to the local hospital.
The trial program was accelerated due to the coronavirus pandemic, which saw much travel and transportation effectively shut down around the world as authorities tried to distance people to limit contagions.