The designer who built a drone to save lives
Zipline, a drone delivery service bringing blood and medicine by air to areas which can’t be reached by road, is a social design endeavour that has not just changed, but saved thousands of lives. At its heart, the creation of Zipline is a story of government and private enterprise working seamlessly, a strong concept and a solution to a very real problem based on an obsessive design and test programme. Rwanda’s towns and villages are not fully serviceable by roads, at least not in an emergency. Many are in disrepair and at the mercy of flooding. It’s not difficult then to imagine the problems involved in transporting blood and medical supplies. In 2014 the Zipline system was set up to deliver these items by aeroplane drone as part of a targeted, sophisticated network. While the finer details are complex the idea is easy to visualise. Two distribution centres with the capacity to serve 12 million people and 450 health facilities receive messages requesting blood or medical supplies