Hyderabad, September 12, 2021: Finally taking wings, the first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone trial run of Telangana’s Medicine from the Sky project kicked off yesterday over the airspace of the Vikarabad district, Telangana, 75kms away from Hyderabad. It successfully delivered critical healthcare supplies such as vaccines via drones.
The logistic service provider Blue Dart is South Asia's premier express air and integrated transportation & distribution company, offers secure and reliable delivery of consignments to over 35,000 locations in India. Blue Dart has collaborated with drone delivery tech startup, Skye Air for these trials
The trials witnessed manless flights basically controlled remotely through a dedicated control centre managed by Blue Dart Med Air Consortium.
The flight occurred between the Police Parade Ground and a local PHC (a distance of about 3 kms), in Vikarabad. The aim was to discover how life-saving medical items such as blood, vaccines and medicines can be delivered more rapidly compared to by road.
Present at the inauguration ceremony were Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia,  and Telangana  state IT Ministert K.T. Rama Rao.
Said Swapnik Jakkampundi, Co-founder Skye Air:“The drones flew in Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) mode.  The flights, equipped with consignments of vaccine flew at an altitude of 400 metres above ground level and covered a distance of 3 Kms. This is first of its kind live demonstration that has happened in India and we are going to continue doing BVLOS flights upto 9 kms in the coming days.
The drones delivered the vaccine payload of 1.5 Kgs to 3km distance within 7 minutes. Skye Air did this under Blue Dart Med Express Consortium. The trial was done using state of the art temperature controlled box maintaining 2-8 degrees Celsius. Further, live payload health tracking was enabled to ensure safety and secure package delivery.
While the trials were for the delivery for vaccines, it is eventually planned to expand delivery to carry medicines and blood, among other things.
The trials will continue till mid-October.