To help alleviate ongoing medical equipment shortages, more unique operational strategies are being integrated into healthcare systems, such as drone delivery services.  

With no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting equipment shortages, can drones deliver? Wingcopter is betting that they can. The German drone delivery company on Monday inked a $16 million deal with U.S. medical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) services provider Spright to supply a “large fleet” of its Wingcopter 198 drones that will deliver everything from vaccines to blood samples.

Launched in July 2020, Spright, the drone subsidiary of aerial transport company Air Methods, has been working toward a nationwide drone delivery network specifically for health care products, having already established 300 bases serving hundreds of hospitals across 48 states, mainly in rural areas.

The new deal will make Wingcopter the company’s exclusive supplier of fixed-wing, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) delivery aircraft, while Spright becomes the sole provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul for the Wingcopter 198 to third parties in the U.S

Read the full article at Freight Waves.