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The Super-Fast Logistics of Delivering Blood By Drone

Wendover Productions · 1.1M views · 2019-01-25 · 13:32

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Overview

A Wendover Productions documentary-style video on how Zipline delivers blood and medical supplies by drone in Rwanda. It covers the catapult launch, parachute drop and the logistics behind it.

On Hacker News

Offered as a clear, well-made look at a real, working drone-delivery system, often in answer to skepticism about delivery drones.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2019–2023

Topics

RoboticsBusiness & economics (other)Medicine & infectious disease
Search by tags
ziplinerwandadronesmedical logisticslast-mile delivery

What people said

Slow_Hand · 2022-04 · Strong recommendation

Wendover Productions did a great video detailing this a few years back. It’s so cool what they’ve done. [VIDEO] Also, Wendover have a fantastic Youtube channel that’s focused on global logistics. It’s endlessly fascinating and extremely well executed. Strongly recommended.

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Fabricio20 · 2019-09 · Recommendation

The catapult launches the drones into the air, which then parachute the package to the location. Real Engineering [1] and Wendover Productions [2] have really nice videos about their system currently deployed in Rwanda. [1]: [LINK] [2]: [VIDEO]

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jeffalyanak · 2023-07 · Reference

Ironically one of the areas it _is_ being used successfully is in delivery of blood to some areas in Rwanda, but they're using fixed-wing drones and are even doing slingshot launches. [1] The economics are totally different, though. The "product" is very high value and has a short shelf life, so being able to deliver it quickly is a big benefit. On top of that, using a fixed-wing delivery vehicle and launching it with a human-powered slingshot makes it actually reasonably energy-efficient. [1] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Wendover Productions, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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