A medical drone logistics trial that has been running since between two hospitals in the Netherlands has been extended by another six months.
Since January this year, a consortium that includes the Netherlands Air Traffic Control (LVNL), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, ANWB, Isala and KPN has been running the first medical drone operation in the country, between the hospitals on the islands Meppel Zwolle.
Eight hundred flight missions later, the parties are ready to extend the operation by another six months, into the middle of 2027. They say the pilot has so far already provided valuable insights into the transport of medical supplies by drone and the safe integration of these flights into Dutch airspace.
These lessons will reportedly be applied for the further development of a national drone network, in which the use of medical drones will become more widespread.
One of the lessons the operation has uncovered is how strong winds have been a limiting factor for the deployment of drones, with flights having to be postponed or cancelled on some days.
“A key objective of the pilot is to conduct extensive testing with so-called Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights, in which the drone operates out of the pilot’s line of sight,” said Maartje van der Helm, General Manager Performance & Development at LVNL.
“These flights take place in airspace that is also used by, amongst others, air ambulance and police helicopters, recreational aviation, the Ministry of Defence and other drone operators. This is a new way of flying and makes scaling up drone use in airspace a challenge.”
With the extension of the pilot scheme, tests will also be carried out within the existing temporary airspace corridor (TGB) to determine how drones will be able to operate safely in an environment where – subject to strict conditions – other air traffic will also be present.
This, the aviation controller explained, is an important step towards the future integration of drones into regular airspace.
“For LVNL, this provides valuable practical experience for the further development of the Common Information Service (CIS), the national information platform for the safe integration of the growing number of drones in our airspace,” van der Helm said.
“The trial also offers important insights into detect-and-avoid technology: the ability of drones to detect other air traffic in good time and respond accordingly.
“All of this helps to further refine processes, information flows and collaboration, and contributes to the safe and efficiently conducted deployment of drones on a larger scale in the Netherlands.”
The organisation says the drone highway connecting Meppel and Zwolle has developed into an important test environment for medical drone transport in the Netherlands.
“Tests carried out along the route include those relating to electronic visibility, detection systems, transponders and radar integration.
“The knowledge gained provides the parties involved with valuable insights and contributes to the development of future regulations, operational procedures and technological solutions for the wider and large-scale deployment of drones in the Netherlands.”