We’ve come a long way from the incremental improvements in drone flight time — I still vividly remember the progression from 8 minutes to 12 minutes to 30 minutes in the air. We’re officially in a new era of long-flight functionality in the commercial drone industry. Drones are now specialized tools with applications far beyond what was possible in years past.
This last week, members of our team at Guinn Partners worked with Doosan Mobility Innovations, in collaboration with Skyfire Consulting, and the US Department of Health, to execute a 43-mile open-ocean medical drone delivery between St. Croix and St. Thomas. The flight took an hour and forty-three minutes on Doosan’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered DS-30 aircraft (which still had nearly 30 minutes of hydrogen left in the tank upon landing). The drone carried simulation vials as a surrogate for diagnostic samples or vaccines in a temperature-controlled payload system. In this video, Eric Davis, Guinn Partners Director of Product Development, gives us some details about the flight, the logistics, and the technology behind completing this challenge.
Hope you enjoy, and I’m excited for this next generation of drone flight capability and what we’ll see enabled by this technology in both the public and commercial sectors!