Zipline begins national drone delivery of blood in Rwanda

Zipline/Platform 2 (P2)

Rwanda launched the world's first national commercial drone delivery service with Zipline in October 2016, flying blood to hospitals from a base near Kigali and cutting delivery waits from hours to minutes. The catapult-launched, GPS-guided fixed-wing drones operate below 500 feet with a range of about 150 kilometres and can deliver up to three bags of blood per flight, supported by Gavi and the UPS Foundation.

• Began national service in October 2016, first country-wide commercial drone delivery network
• 13 kg fixed-wing drones with ~150 km range; can carry ~1.5 kg payload (three bags of blood)
• Delivery time cut from hours to ~30 minutes by text-message request to 21 transfusing facilities
• Up to 150 on-demand, emergency deliveries per day across western half of Rwanda