Rwanda is planning to construct three ‘droneport’ that will cost US$6 million annually between now and 2020, in a bid to ease the delivery of urgent packages to remote locations.
According to online Tech Times, the drones in the Rwanda project, said to be the first in Africa, are capable of delivering 22 pound packages each and covering half of the small Central African country.
The project is being backed by London-based architecture firm Foster and Partners and Afrotech, an African technology group sparked by the Swiss research university Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.
‘If this goes well, the model could be scaled and replicated across Africa in years to come’ Tech Times reports.
“We want to pioneer ghost railways in the sky,” Jonathan Ledgard, a director at Afrotech, said adding: “Larger loads going longer distances in quiet, beautiful, ultra-cheap craft is a different vision to Amazon’s insect approach of bristling tiny drones carrying small loads short distances.”
‘If the project goes well, it can spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo’ Tech Times reports.
