The First Government Sanctioned Delivery of Medical Supplies by Remotely Controlled UAS
(Room 271-272)
03 May 16
10:30 AM
-
11:00 AM
Tracks:
Air, Commercial, Research and Development, Technical Track: Airspace Integration Research, Transportation
The first government sanctioned delivery of medical supplies by UAS occurred at Wise, Virginia, on July 17, 2015. The "Let's Fly Wisely" event was a demonstration of the humanitarian use of UAS to facilitate delivery of medical supplies to remote or otherwise difficult-to-reach areas. The event was the result of coordinated efforts by a partnership which included the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), Flirtey Corporation, Lonesome Pine Airport, Remote Area Medical (RAM), Health Wagon, SEESPAN Aerial Interactive, Rx Partnership, and Wise County, Virginia. The historic event occurred during the annual Remote Area Medical clinic at the Wise County Fairgrounds. The medical supplies in small packages were delivered to the fairgrounds from the Lonesome Pine Airport by UAS operated by Firtey. A larger supply of the same medical supplies were delivered to the Lonesome Pine Airport from the Tazewell County Airport by NASA Langley’s SR22 UAS Surrogate Research aircraft. The UAS Surrogate aircraft was remotely controlled for most of the flight by a UAS Surrogate Ground Station located at the Lonesome Pine Airport. The medical supplies were delivered from the UAS Surrogate to Flirtey for final delivery by Hex Multi-Rotor UAS in smaller packages and multiple trips to the fairgrounds. A Certification of Authorization (COA) issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated the site as an authorized UAS test site. The paper will present additional details of the historic delivery of pharmaceuticals by UAS during the ‘Let’s Fly Wisely’ event at Wise, Virginia. The Concept of Operations was designed to simulate medical supplies generated at an accessible depot, transported to a marginally acceptable outpost - dangerous, contaminated, hostile, or otherwise problematic for manned operations. The bulk supplies would be parsed, loaded onto small UAS in 5 pound increments, and operated to points-of-delivery otherwise inaccessible. The paper will also provide details of NASA’s SR22 UAS Surrogate Research aircraft and its capabilities. The UAS Surrogate was designed to investigate the procedures, aircraft sensors and other systems that may be required to allow Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to safely operate with manned aircraft in the National Airspace System (NAS). The UAS Surrogate makes use of a Safety Pilot, a Research Systems Operator (RSO), a remote control Ground Station, Ground Station Operator, redundant data link radios, auto-throttle, Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B), S-Band Telemetry, and other instrumentation systems. The aircraft is manned which allows for flight operations almost anywhere in the NAS without the need for a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certificate of Authorization (COA). The UAS Surrogate can be controlled from a modular, transportable ground station like a true UAS. The UAS Surrogate is able to file and fly in the NAS with normal traffic and is an ideal platform for real world UAS research and development compared to actual UAS flying in restricted ranges or other segregated airspace.