It’s common knowledge that the range of a drone is greatly restricted by its battery life. Drones can generally fly for a limited time of around 30 minutes with a normal battery. Recently, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered delivery drone managed a record-breaking test flight of one hour and 43 minutes. This is good news for the medical industry that has been using drones for the delivery of medical samples and supplies.
New Possibilities On The Horizon
The DS30 is a hydrogen fuel cell-powered octocopter manufactured by Doosan Mobility Innovation. This impressive craft is the result of a collaboration between Texas-based drone development company Guinn Partners, Georgia based Skyfire Consulting, the US Department of Health, and Doosan Mobility Innovation.
A temperature-controlled payload system allows the drone to transport live bacteria samples from a hospital on the Island of St. Croix in the Caribbean to the testing facility on the Island next door called St. Thomas. The epic sea crossing involved 43 miles (69 km) of open ocean water. After landing and successfully reaching the destination with its payload, the drone still had 30 minutes of flight time remaining on its fuel cell.
Good News For The Medical Industry
Patients have to typically wait an entire week for biological fluid samples to be transported between these two islands. In the event of illnesses like dengue fever, the infection may progress to dangerous levels within that amount of time, said Guinn Partners. Using a drone is not only cheaper and safer but also an easier way for samples to be sent to St. Croix immediately.
During the test flight, a team followed the drone in a boat, ready to take manual control in case it was needed. The fully autonomous test runs are planned for the first half of next year. In the future, the DS30 will fly completely solo.
