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Monday, March 21, 2016

A remote control drone that can carry 1100 pounds...

The potential for this is great. They are mentioning how you can airlift men from the battlefield. There is also the potential for airlifting injured civilians in distant rural areas to trauma centers at a fraction of the cost of standard helicopters.







Military drone ambulance can carry loads of up to 500kg

The Israeli company Urban Aeronautics created AirMule, a drone capable of carrying loads of up to half a ton. The equipment was developed primarily for military use, to be used in missions in hard to reach places where conventional helicopters can’t access.

“[It could fly to] anyone out in the field who needs water, food, batteries, supplies, medical equipment and so forth,” Rafi Yoeli told the BBC. “Later, it could be used to fetch soldiers that you don’t want to leave behind or are wounded. There are plenty of situations where you cannot send a helicopter – for example, in the middle of fighting where you want to evacuate people from a street or from a narrow roof. Eventually, there could be civilian applications, such as rescue missions in the mountains or flying into disaster areas – for example, nuclear facilities where no person in a helicopter could get in.”

Still in testing phase, AirMule flies completely autonomously: take-off, maneuvers, landing, everything is done by the device’s navigation system and the Israeli aircraft can reach speeds of up to 180 km/h.

Despite the interesting proposal of carrying people in a drone that can be remote-controlled, one must keep in mind some obstacles that involve drones in general. Like the flight distance which is limited to 49 km, while helicopters have no distance limits as long as the fuel lasts. According to the creators, the drone has incredible flight capacity even in turbulent weather, resisting winds of up to 50 knots, a significant improvement over existing helicopters.

Thank you Mike K for the link.

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