The Super-Fast Logistics of Delivering Blood By Drone on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2019–2023.
documentary · dated
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.
Offered as a clear, well-made look at a real, working drone-delivery system, often in answer to skepticism about delivery drones.
“Wendover Productions did a great video detailing this a few years back.”
4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Wendover Productions did a great video detailing this a few years back. It’s so cool what they’ve done. ▶ this video Also, Wendover have a fantastic Youtube channel that’s focused on global logistics. It’s endlessly fascinating and extremely well executed. Strongly recommended.
in “Drones have transformed blood delivery in Rwanda” · View on HN
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]: ▶ this video
in “Google Wing Launching US Drone Deliveries with FedEx, Walgreens” · View on HN
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] ▶ this video
in “Ask HN: What ever happened to the “coming wave” of delivery drones?” · View on HN
There's a better video of the drones here: [link] Google's delivery drones combine a multirotor design with fixed-wings. It seems like an eminently sensible design to me; fixed-wing operation will be quieter and more power-efficient, allowing longer travel distances (unlike the early Amazon Prime Air videos [1]), while hover capability avoids the need to parachute the load (unlike the current Zipline drones [2]) and provides a hover-and-land-almost-anywhere capability I imagine is useful. Presumably the winch-down-the-load design reduces the risk of a user putting their hands into the blades - not to mention reducing the risk from customers choosing an inappropriate landing location; I imagine the drone can also jettison the winch cord if it gets caught on anything. It precludes delivering directly to apartment windows - but AFAIK no-one else is trying that either. It's a pity they haven't released clear info on these drones' range, round-trip time and weight carrying capacity. Which are of course critical to working out the profitability of a citywide coffee delivery service. [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video
in “Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra” · View on HN