Oban: Drones are being used to deliver much-needed medical supplies to an island off the west coast of Scotland.
The aim is to cut down on costs and delivery times, particularly during medical crises like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A drone with the capacity to carry several kilos of medical supplies took its first flight on Wednesday, soaring from Oban, a town in mainland Scotland, to the Isle of Mull, 16 kilometers off Scotland's west coast.
It's part of a pilot project that's been nearly two years in the making but brought forward due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the need to deliver medical supplies to isolated islands.
Drone company Skyports partnered with French aerospace company Thales to work with the UK's health service, the NHS, on the trial.
The aim is to supply medical necessities faster and cheaper to islands in the Argyll and Bute area, which includes 23 inhabited islands, according to the local council.
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The trial aims to test how feasible it would be to deliver urgent medical cargo, such as COVID-19 test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by drone, explains Duncan Walker, CEO of Skyports.
"We're going to be flying COVID testing kits, PPE from the mainland to the island, where communications are very difficult. You have to have ferries, cars - it can take a very long time," he says.
"It's about 20 kilometers in total, we can fly that journey in about 15 minutes. And if you had to do it by ferry and road, that's almost a two-hour journey."
The team is based at Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban.
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The trial will consist of drone flights between the hospital and Mull and Iona Community Hospital in Craignure.
Walker says it has been a long journey to start the trial with permission from aviation authorities.
"It's a very regulated process, it takes a long time to get to this stage, and today, we'll be doing our first flights to and from the island," he says.
"We've been doing A to A, as we call it, flights, so from here, return, checking all the technology, all the communications links. We're starting those proper flights today."
The flights are using drones built by unmanned aircraft maker Wingcopter.
"It's got a payload or a package load of about five kilograms. It can fly 100 kilometers, it can fly well over 100 kilometers an hour, so we have a great travel distance," says Walker.
"We have been testing it for a very long time, it's something we've been working on for over a year and a half, and we have deployed it in a bunch of different situations and this is a great one as a response to help the NHS."
Walker believes drones will be used to ferry items to the island even after the COVID-19 crisis.
On the first trip back from the Isle of Mull, the team receives a congratulatory note and some chocolates.
"This being the first flight of its kind from A to B, from this hospital, our colleagues on Mull at the moment have sent us over a nice card and some chocolates for us to enjoy, a celebration of this first," says operations manager Callum Holland.
Stephen Whiston, head of strategic planning for the Argyll and Bute Social Care Partnership for NHS Highland, says the region is perfect for this kind of trial, with many islands in need of medical supplies.
"The use of drones can become a real game-changer in how quickly we can support our communities and our health professionals, improving the health and care that we deliver to them, and keeping them safe," he says.
Current regulations stipulate that drones must always be flown within visual line of sight of the pilot.
So, to complete these extended flights, the team is consulting extensively with UK aviation authorities.
If the trial is successful, the team says it will work closely with authorities and the UK's health service to make drone deliveries available in Scotland and across the UK.
(AP)
