Many of the drone industry’s great success stories concern the delivery of medical supplies. In dense urban areas in the US, Asia, and Europe and in remote, hard-to-reach regions of Africa and South America, drones have been deployed to bring medicine, blood, and other critical healthcare assets to people in need—and they’ve shown they can do it quickly, safely, and inexpensively.

This week, a milestone in the effort to expand medical delivery by drone was announced by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The department’s Aeronautics Division reported the successful completion of drone medical delivery demonstrations in the Boston-area communities of Lynn and Swampscott. Conducted by three drone companies, the drone flights transported packages of up to 10 pounds for one-mile flights during the summer and fall of 2024.

"In an urban environment such as Boston, getting medical supplies or medications to people in a timely manner can reduce cost and possibly reduce response time to an urgent or emerging health crisis,” Denise Garcia, Acting Administrator of MassDOT Aeronautics told Commercial UAV News. “As part of our mission, we want to inform the public of what is out there, and how these technologies can support them. These demonstrations give the companies the opportunity to showcase their technology to local industry."

Draganfly and DroneUp, two well-established drone companies in both the consumer and medical delivery space, both participated in the project. A start-up, Arrive AI, also took part. A maker of a physical “smart” mailbox that enables autonomous drone-based delivery to and from the mailbox, Arrive AI recently teamed up with A2Z Drone Delivery to expand operations.

Garcia explained that these and past medical delivery demonstrations were conducted “to test and measure the use of uncrewed systems for delivering small packages for home-based healthcare and emergency medical response.”

"In the short term, we want to make the public more aware of the capabilities of UAS, and normalize this aspect of Advanced Aviation,” Garcia stated. “As a long-term goal, we look at small UAVs and their regular flights throughout the Commonwealth as a steppingstone leading to a future of AAM moving people and goods throughout the Commonwealth, especially in areas that underserved by existing aviation and ground-based transportation systems."

For Draganfly, DroneUp, and Arrive AI, the Boston-area demonstration project highlights their commitment to bringing effective medical delivery services to more communities. For MassDOT, the medical delivery pilot builds on the agency’s ongoing work using drones for transportation safety, infrastructure inspection, and incident response, as it supports the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), and other community-focused organizations.    

Read the full MassDOT press release here: https://www.mass.gov/news/massdot-aeronautics-reports-successful-drone-delivery-demonstrations