A recent experiment that utilized a drone to transport organs within Texas and Oklahoma cut travel time in more than half, furthering the goal of a consortium that the technology will be used in the near future download lagu to save more lives.
The “drone” — an optionally piloted aircraft — is a light, single-engine piston Cessna that is currently in the experiment phase. The purpose of the unmanned vehicle is to move up to 400 lbs of freight, including donated organs.
In the first leg of the Nov. 15 test, the drone, which was transporting a kidney, liver and pancreas, along with blood and tissue, was launched from Texas Tech University’s Reese Technology Center in Lubbock and traveled 350 miles to Oklahoma City.
In the next leg of the test, the drone traveled 471 miles to the San Antonio International Airport. It then returned to the Reese Technology Center.
The flight was operated from Dallas using robotic technology, marking the first time donated organs were transported that far by a drone. Per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, a pilot was on board as a precaution for safety and security, though the plane was flown entirely by technology.
“I haven’t been privy to anything that went wrong. We were tracking the flight. We did notice slight delays depending on wind changes,” said Clara Guerrero, director of communications for the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance. “The only variants I saw is that we were maybe 10 minutes off schedule.”
The goal of the experiment was to determine whether drone technology would provide a quicker and more efficient way to transport donated organs, which must be delivered to a recipient as quickly as possible, to patients who need them.
