Tel Aviv: Israeli drone technology crosses another major hurdle. Israeli based Gadfin Aero-Logistics Systems has secured a contract with Israel’s biggest medical GPO & logistics company – SAREL, for sending supplies from its advanced medical logistic centre, to gradually connect all the major hospitals in Israel, in a radius of up to 200Km, under a long-term exclusive partnership agreement.
This will make Israel the first western country in the world to have an automatic, on demand, medical delivery aerial grid. This contract will allow SAREL to have constant supply of medical equipment, medicines vaccines, blood, serum, lab samples and more, using a star model all across Israel, at less than one hour from call. The first operational delivery line, will be the longest drone delivery line in the world, stretching up to 100 Km radius. The project is based on Gadfin’s unique patented technology, that enables to fly up to a 250Km distance (125Km radius without swapping batteries and hydrogen tank). This is accomplished by using hydrogen fuel cell technology, special patented wing folding mechanism and state of the art safety design to meet the most demanding regulation standards. The project will reach up to 60 deliveries a day (up to 21,000 deliveries a year) within three years from now, using 18 Gadfin Spirit One Air-vehicles, under a service contract with Gadfin.
Gadfin’s Spirit One air-vehicle is designed to carry inside its cargo bay a standard cooled medical supply package. It can fly at heavy rain, and under winds reaching up to 30 Km/h. The Spirit One is equipped with an independent automatic emergency parachute system that keeps it safe at any scenario.
Avi Buskila, SAREL’s CEO stated: “This partnership we established with Gadfin utilising its breakthrough technology, as part of SAREL’s innovation policy, will allow SAREL to be the first medical logistics company in the world to allow a nationwide, on demand, immediate lifesaving equipment and supply, regardless of traffic, while reducing Inventory and waste due to expired medical supplies.”
Eyal Regev, Gadfin’s CEO said: “This is a great day for the drone delivery revolution, for Israel’s health system, and for SAREL. I think SAREL made a great choice by selecting Gadfin to be their air-logistics company. Gadfin’s systems gives SAREL the capability to fly a wide variety of medical supplies with extreme, real time monitored, cooling. And to it almost all across Israel, up to 250 Km radius, from one central hub. This brings into light the enormous efforts Gadfin’s top notch team of engineers have successfully achieved, in defining, designing and building a functioning “day and night, rain or shine” super robust air delivery system, which brings a fully operational drone delivery system into life.”
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
