The NAL’s octocopter can carry a payload of 15 kg, boasts of a hovering endurance of 40 minutes, and can fly at an operational altitude of 500 metres at a maximum speed of 36 km/hour.
At precisely 9.53 am on Saturday, the staff at Haragadde Public Health Centre (PHC) in Anekal on Bengaluru’s outskirts were pleasantly surprised to see a multi-copter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) land at their premises with 50 vials of Covid-19 vaccines and syringes in a special container from Chandapura PHC, in Bengaluru Urban district about six kilometres from Electronics City. The distance of seven kilometres was covered in 10 minutes, instead of the 40 minutes it would have taken by road.