The Super-Fast Logistics of Delivering Blood By Drone
Why Hacker News recommends it
Offered as a clear, well-made look at a real, working drone-delivery system, often in answer to skepticism about delivery drones.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2019 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Slow_Hand · 2022-04 · on “Drones have transformed blood delivery in Rwanda”
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.
Recommends Fabricio20 · 2019-09 · on “Google Wing Launching US Drone Deliveries with FedEx, Walgreens”
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]
Cites michaelt · 2019-04 · on “Google Wing will deliver to about 100 homes in Canberra”
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 imagi
Cites jeffalyanak · 2023-07 · on “Ask HN: What ever happened to the “coming wave” of delivery drones?”
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]