The small pilotless aircraft, otherwise known as drone, is scheduled to have its maiden voyage on Friday and will be heading to Juist, a small island off the northwestern coast of Germany. With a population of only 1,500 to 1,700 people, the sparsely populated island will be receiving daily deliveries all throughout October. The drone will compensate for the ferry and flight traveling methods when these typical traveling modes are not up and running.
The DHL "parcelcopter" will carry parcels of up to 1.2 kg across a 7-mile stretch that starts from the city of Norden and ends at the small island of Juist using speed that could reach up to 40 miles for every hour. It will be carrying medicine and other emergency items. The cargo will be stored safely in a custom made weatherproof container that will be placed hanging below the drone's rotor blade system. The flight is calculated to last around 15 to 30 minutes in either direction.
The "parcelcopter" will fly at a 50 meter altitude in order to avoid having any airspace issues and to keep away from having a human pilot oversee the flight. Instead, the drones shall be manipulated using a type of software that is designed to map its journey and alter its course as needed. Moreover, the DHL drones are restricted to fly over any houses in order to avoid getting complaints from privacy-minded residents of the island.
Since 2013, DHL has been studying the possibilities of delivering packages using unmanned aerial vehicles. The company has been coordinating with all of relevant airspace regulating and local officials in order to determine a restricted flight area that will be used solely for the project.
"Our DHL parcelcopter 2.0 is already one of the safest and most reliable flight systems in its class," says Jürgen Gerdes of Deutsche Post DHL.
Unlike Amazon and Google which have outlined plans to possibly carry out their drone services across large areas, DHL has no plans to expand the trial and reach all those that are under its global delivery network.
When the DHL parcelcopter, which weighs below three pounds, lands on the German island, one of the couriers of the company will then deliver the sent package to the island's local residents.
In the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration reiterates that flying drones pose some dangers to both the commercial airspace and the people on the ground. It is even trying to create a legislation containing strict policies that will forbid using drones for business purposes such as commercial farming observation and paid photography.
