Drone delivery service Flirtey and Dr. Timothy Amukele, assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, will conduct the first ship to shore drone delivery in the U.S. on June 23 near the Delaware coast.
Flirtey is a client of Ryan Media Labs, Lewes, a communications and public relations company specializing in the drone industry. Ryan has been active in Delaware in educational efforts regarding the drone industry.
The purpose of the joint mission is to demonstrate how unmanned aircraft can provide lifesaving aid to victims of a disaster, such as a hurricane or system-wide failure of electrical or communications infrastructure.
Amukele has previously led research on the viability of using medical drones to transport blood samples and blood products, and is serving as a volunteer advisor to the project.
Flirtey and Dr. Amukele will conduct the flights at the invitation of disaster preparedness nonprofit Field Innovation Team, which is also hosting guests from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance as part of the Drones in Disasters ‘Do Tank.’
Flirtey will fly drones carrying medical samples for emergency testing between an onshore medical relief camp at Cape May, NJ and a test facility on a vessel stationed off the coast.
In a round trip, Flirtey drones will also deliver medical supplies from the vessel to the onshore medical camp. Flirtey’s ability to rapidly deliver medical supplies along a coastline when road systems may be damaged is a large leap forward in humanitarian logistics and response.
“Imagine a future where in the event of a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy, Flirtey drones rapidly deliver emergency medical supplies, food and water,” said Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny. “This demonstration is helping to make that future a reality, and taking us one step closer to Flirtey’s mission to save lives and change lifestyles.”
“This is an unprecedented opportunity to provide urgent aid and advanced diagnosis tools into a disaster zone with interoperability with key government relief assets,” said Flirtey Cofounder Tom Bass. “This event wouldn’t be possible without Mark and Kyle from Ryan Media Lab. Flirtey has been the beneficiary of their amazing ability to build coalitions here in Cape May, and also when we conducted the first FAAapproved drone delivery last year in Wise, Virginia.”
Additional support for the event comes from New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), the Delaware River and Bay Authority, the County of Cape May, Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, and Atlantic Cape Community College.
The River and Bay Authority has tested drones in an effort to determine whether the technology would work on inspecting the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The offshore demonstration has implications for global humanitarian efforts. Eight of the 10 largest cities in the world are coastal cities, and more than three billion people, or 44 percent of the world’s population, live within 95 miles of the coast, according to the United Nations.
Flirtey has been rapidly developing and refining. Flirtey was the first company to conduct an FAAapproved delivery in the United States, and the first company to perform a fully autonomous drone delivery to a home in the U.S.
Flirtey, a U.S.based startup has worked with NASA, the University of Nevada, Reno, The New Jersey Test Site and Virginia Tech to create technology and logistics systems for a mass market drone delivery network..
