A UK-based drone manufacturer, Windhorse, is planning on launching “POUNCER”; a disaster relief drone than carries food inside it wings, and can be broken down for feeding a fire, or be using in building a shelter.
Being that the current parachute relief aid that is being used comes out to be much cheaper, the use of POUNCER drones would illuminate the problems air drops have now; such as, high recovery costs, and a much less accurate delivery range. POUNCER can be flown independently into a pre designated area from over 40 miles away. This greatly reduces the risk to launch personnel in not so friendly zones.
Developers hope to have all of the drone parts edible, instead of just loading the wings. They also want to make the electronic casings edible.
“We’ve got food laboratories looking into the technology and the edible drone is only about 18 months away from full scale production,” CEO of Windhorse said.
“The biggest problem we see facing the use of drones in humanitarian relief is dealing with inconsistent regulations between countries, and coordinating with local relief efforts,” he continued.
Windhorse has offered the technology to multiple NGOs, which includes Oxfam.
“We’d like to work with the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal to get standard regulations,”
As Windhorse continues to seek out funding, they hope POUNCER will be ready for sale not later than March of next year.
As to whether these NGO’s will be looking at how cost effective POUNCER will be over current, parachuted relief efforts is questionable. This is the first project of its kind, and Windhorse’s hopes are high because of this.
“This is a most certain way to help with relief efforts more easily, and accurately,” he finished.
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