logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

NASA Experiments with Drones and a Showy Delivery to a Rural Nonprofit

Ruth McCambridge
July 21, 2015
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
drone-shadow
“AK Rockefeller.” Image from Dronenthusiast, used with permission.

July 17, 2015; WSLS-TV (Abington, VA)

 

NPQ has written previously about nonprofits that are experimenting with the use of drones. This story, too, comes with a sense of foreboding derived from the conviction that drones are far more likely to be used against civil society than for it. But personal feelings aside, on Friday, the first FAA-approved drone deliveries were made—in this case, transporting packages of medical supplies to an annual health fair in Wise County, Virginia, which is in the middle of Appalachian coal country.

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The effort is purportedly looking at the effectiveness of this form of transport for pharmaceuticals and other supplies, particularly in disaster and humanitarian relief. It’s part of a research project led by Virginia Tech and the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. There were more than a dozen partners on the testing team, including NASA’s Langley Research Center, Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Rx Partnership, SEESPAN Aerial Interactive Media, and Wise County Economic Development.

Among the vehicles tested were a small hexacopter weighing less than 10 pounds and NASA’s SR-22, an aircraft that does have a pilot on board for safety but is remotely operated. All together, Health Wagon, a healthcare outreach organization, and Remote Area Medical received 24 packages of supplies over several hours.

So why does this feel like an odd PR stunt of some kind? Maybe because Frank Jones, deputy director of NASA Langley’s Research Services Directorate, took the moment to declare that drones are here to stay. “We need to find out how to utilize them in the right way,” he said. “The more we do this, the more we’re educating the public on how they can be used, and we’re finding out how to do that safely.”—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: disaster relief humanitarian aidNonprofit NewsPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of Mutual Aid
Steve Dubb
We Owe You Nothing: The Movement to Cancel Student Debt Gains Ground
Rithika Ramamurthy
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Green New Deal or Stale Old Tax-Break Scam? Getting Electric Vehicle Incentives Right
Greg LeRoy
Goodbye “Race Neutrality”—The Case for Race-Conscious Economic Policy
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad
Graduate Student Workers Are in the Frontline of the Growing Labor Movement
Rithika Ramamurthy

NPQ_Summer_2022

Upcoming Webinars

July 14th, 2 pm ET

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now
Group Created with Sketch.
July 28th, 2 pm ET

Changing the Subject

Boards As Social Movement Spaces

Register Now
You might also like
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of...
Steve Dubb
We Owe You Nothing: The Movement to Cancel Student Debt...
Rithika Ramamurthy
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.