The World's Fastest Drones Want to Start Saving Lives in America

Launching, three, two, one!

[Jack] This is what Zipline says

is the fastest drone in the world,

designed to drop life saving medical supplies

at hard to reach hospitals.

It says its new, second generation

modular plane-like drone not only enables

speedy deliveries, but can be built

and rebuilt in minutes, making it tough and durable.

Zipline is catapulting its latest creations

into the sky from a base in Northern California

for some final tests.

But over the last year and a half

it's designed and proven the concept

of a drone distribution system

for essential medical products

like rare medicines and blood for transfusions.

And it's built an entire national network

in Rwanda, dropping life-saving parcels

at remote medical centers,

which can be completely cut off by road

in the rainy season.

At this point Zipline has flown about 300 thousand

fully autonomous and commercial kilometers

delivering 7,000 units of blood

across more than 4,000 commercial deliveries.

[Jack] Zipline's rolling out

version two of its aircraft and ground station.

Everything here is redesigned,

from the planes themselves to the chargers

and when the drone comes back to base,

it's plucked from the sky by a new landing mechanism,

which stretches a nylon cord 30 feet in the air

and whips it up like a jump rope

to catch the hook on the tail of the plane,

and then rapidly reel it in.

Now with the FFA on the verge of allowing

US testing of drone deliveries,

Zipline's hoping to start operations closer to home.

It's eyeing a site in Northern Nevada

in which it could reach 40 hospitals

with ultra-rapid deliveries of blood,

antivenom, or rare medications.

What we're doing today is basically

high volume testing of the new aircraft

and new distribution center that Zipline has built

which is going to enable us to basically

bring the service that we've been providing

at a national scale in Rwanda over the last year

to many more countries over the coming years.

[Jack] Working in extreme environments

means the aircraft have to be robust,

resilient, and repairable.

The body of the plane's made from expanded foam,

like a cooler, but the clever part is the construction.

It's now totally modular,

with just three fasteners, down from dozens,

and new, quieter motors.

Anyone should be able to build and fly

one of Zipline's drones with very little instruction.

Even me.

One hand up on the tail bow.

I can lift this whole thing?

Yep. Oh!

Super light. Super light.

Yeah, And just walk it right over here.

Okay.

The plane needs wings,

which are removable and exchangeable if damaged.

First, I just clip those in.

And you're going to want to take

those two metal grooves here and here,

and just gently set them into these white channels.

[Jack] The heaviest component is the battery pack

which has been sat on a smart charger,

and which also contains memory cards with the maps

the drone will need for autonomous flight.

That goes in the nose.

The precious cargo is already boxed up

in a simple cardboard crate, with a primitive

but effective paper parachute.

I just push it into the belly of the plane

against the elastic straps that will eject it.

So it's gonna obviously be under

a fair bit of tension while it's flying,

and then that helps eject the package

and make sure we're clear of all the bottom

of the aircraft once it goes.

[Jack] Every step is designed to be

as simple as possible.

The pre-flight checks of the moving control surfaces

are done with a magic want, AKA a smartphone and QR codes.

Then, it's time to launch.

Launching Zipline 138.

There you go.

[Jack] Retrieving the package means waiting

in a nearby grassy field for the drone to come into sight

and then release its precious cargo

before soaring back to base.

So this is 138, the aircraft we just built and launched.

It just dropped its package here.

In the real world the planes can fly

round trip missions of 100 miles

and drop a package in the area taken up

by a couple of parking spaces.

One of the weirdest results of what we're doing today

is that people in the US still think that this technology

is basically impossible or not ready for prime time,

and in fact then the doctors and nurses

who we serve in Rwanda at this point

think it's totally old hat,

and they just rely on it day in and day out.

[Jack] While a lot of companies are currently

experimenting with drone deliveries

for everything from online purchases to hamburgers and beer,

Zipline is proving that it's not only possible

on a nationwide level, but also practical.