The Royal Navy of Great Britain has tested a cargo drone T150 company Malloy Aeronautics in an impromptu operation to rescue a sailor overboard. The task of the drone was to find a dummy in the water, drop it a simulation of rescue vehicles and continue to hover over it until the rescue team arrived.
The drone first saved drowning people in Australia in 2018. He dropped a capsule with a self-inflating raft to two surfers off the coast of New South Wales. Usually it takes rescuers up to six minutes to get to the drowning people, but the drone was enough for about two. There are other systems for saving people in the water. For example, a radio-controlled buoy or a robot floating from the bottom .
The British Navy has been studying for the last few months whether drones can be useful for rescuing sailors who have fallen overboard. For experiments, the military chose two cargo drones from Malloy Aeronautics- T150 and T80 . The first one lifts 68 kilograms and flies up to 70 kilometers. The second one can carry only 30 kilograms, and its range is limited to 50 kilometers. Both models are able to get to a given point without the help of an operator.
The military tested the T150 cargo drone in an improvised operation to rescue sailors overboard. The drone successfully located a dummy floating in Portsmouth Harbor and dropped a simulation of rescue vehicles to it. After that, the T150 remained hovering over the dummy, waiting for the rescue team. The T80 took part in the second phase of the tests. He showed that he could take to the air from a moving boat.
Drones can conduct rescue operations not only in the air, but also under water. Earlier we wrote about the Korean company Hanwha Systems, which develops flocks of drones for underwater rescue missions.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva
