United Kingdom · Wired
The drones are part of an experiment run by two New York-New Jersey agencies to discover how a relatively new
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“Will there be enough regular flights (1 to 2 per hour) that the client health care system finds true value?” Stephan Pezdek, the regional freight planning manager at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is operating the pilot, wrote in an email to WIRED.
Key facts
- In May 2023, nearly 9,000 helicopter flights took place over city land or water, according to data compiled by the New York City Council
- Skyports has been delivering mail in remote areas of Scotland since 2023, and carrying cargo to offshore wind turbines in Germany
- The Port Authority, which is also working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCDEC) on this drone project, will also measure how the deliveries affect patient care, Pezdek says
- The US company Zipline says it makes deliveries to and from some 5,000 health facilities across four continents; its oldest program delivers vaccines and blood products in Rwanda
Summary
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a six-propeller flying vehicle with a nearly eight-foot wingspan. For the next year, delivery drones operated by the British company Skyports are taking daily weekday trips across New York City’s East River, between the tip of Manhattan and a pier in Brooklyn. The drones are part of an experiment run by two New York-New Jersey agencies to discover how a relatively new and sometimes controversial sky-bound delivery tech might fit into a hectic urban environment—and the airspace above it.
The Port Authority, which is also working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCDEC) on this drone project, will also measure how the deliveries affect patient care, Pezdek says.