“A drone was used to urgently deliver medication to tourists stranded on an island due to strong winds and high waves, successfully addressing an emergency situation.

According to the Jeju Island Fire and Safety Headquarters on the 14th, a report was received at around 12:07 a.m. the previous day (July 13) that a woman in her 60s, identified as Ms. A, was experiencing low energy levels on Gapado Island in Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo City.

Ms. A had entered Gapado Island five days prior and was stranded due to strong winds and high waves. Suffering from chronic conditions including diabetes, she showed symptoms of decreased energy after running out of medication. After receiving the report, fire authorities dispatched a specialized medical firefighting team to the scene and provided emergency treatment, but the situation required immediate medication. However, strong gusts of up to approximately 10 meters per second at the time prevented the deployment of a doctor helicopter or Coast Guard vessels.

In response, the fire authorities secured diabetes medication and, with cooperation from the Jeju Space Mobility Division, decided to use a drone for delivery.

The drone departed from the Seogwipo City Daejeong-eup Sangmori Drone Delivery Center at around 4:55 p.m. and successfully delivered the medication to Gapado Island in about 10 minutes.”

From The Chosun Daily.

“More Walmart delivery drones are now buzzing around Houston-area skies.

In January, Walmart launched its drone delivery service in partnership with Wing at five locations in the Houston area. The retail giant just added eight more stores to its Houston-area drone delivery network.

Wing says the expansion makes drone delivery available to more than 1 million residents of the Houston area.”

From InnovationMap.

“Zipline, the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery company, is expanding service into Austin later this year, bringing food, groceries and even prescriptions straight to customers’ yards.”

From Austin American-Statesman.

“The Federal Aviation Administration announced a proposed rule change Tuesday that would lift the ban on supersonic flights over the continental U.S. by non-military planes, a policy that’s been in place since 1973.

Planes traveling over Mach 1 typically cause sonic booms, shock waves made by planes traveling faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms over the land can cause property damage, as they did in the 1960s when military planes would shatter windows and break dishes in the homes below.

New technological advancements have made the 53-year-old ban obsolete, according to the FAA, and so the Trump administration wants to return over-land supersonic air travel to the U.S.. The Concorde, which flew from 1976-2003 and could travel from London to New York in just three hours, flew primarily over the Atlantic Ocean where sonic booms rarely disturbed humans living below.

‘Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, noise reduction, and new operational concepts will eliminate the old sonic boom,’ FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Tuesday in a statement. ‘This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports.’

The FAA said in its announcement that the agency plans to propose another rule this year that will establish landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft traveling over land. The goal is to give private manufacturers guidance so they can finalize designs that will allow supersonic travel over the U.S.”

From Gizmodo.